'‘Political correctness’ lies are mad – and dangerous'

Tuesday, 25 November 2008 12:04

Edward Stourton, a presenter of BBC Radio 4's Today programme and author of 'It's a PC World: What it Means to Live in a Land Gone Politically Correct', writes on the dangerous implications of headlines that pander to political correctness and promote false stereotypes.

He writes: 'We readers do not always pause for very long to ask whether the stories that play to our anti-PC emotions are true. ...After analysing several 'PC gone mad' stories I concluded that any piece with those words in the headline needs to be approached with caution - especially at this time of year. We can all be confident that at some point before December 25 we will read a newspaper piece which states that Birmingham City Council tried to ban Christmas and rename it 'Winterval'.'

'[...] Towards the end of his time as mayor of London, Ken Livingstone set up a group to report on the representation of Muslims in the media, and they quoted a story in the Express in the run up to Christmas 2005.

The piece was headlined "Christmas is banned because it offends Muslims" and it was based on the fact that advertisements for the switch-throwing ceremonies at street light displays in Lambeth had referred to them as "winter lights" and "celebrity lights" rather than Christmas lights. That does seem a bit silly but whether you could really say it amounted to a "banning" of Christmas is another matter.

More importantly the story contained absolutely nothing to back-up the suggestion that this was because Christmas "offends Muslims" - in fact it contained a pro-Christmas quote from the Muslim Council of Britain. Anyone who has reported on religion in Britain knows that while there may be many sources of conflict between Christians and non-Christians in post-9/11 Britain, Muslim objections to Christmas is not one of them. Most Muslims actively welcome Christmas because it marks one of the few moments when our secular society publicly celebrates a religious festival.

It is a dangerously PC thing to argue, but headlines which play to false stereotypes can do real damage.'

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