It's Political Correctness Gone Mad Gone Mad!

Here's a nice one. 'Hospital that 'banned' hot cross buns to avoid offending non-Christians' in the Mail and 'Hot cross buns banned to avoid offence' in the Express.

The trouble with both headlines is that nothing got banned and the patients still got their hot cross buns. But when has the Mail or the Express ever let the truth get in the way of a good Political Correctness Gone Mad story? The answer is never. The Mail never lets the truth get in the way. Either does the Express. They prefer to use the 'Withdrawn!' tactic. (Plus, it definitely looks as though I was being a bit over-optimistic about the Express after all. Coises. Foiled again).

Here's the dealio. Dunno why I wrote it like that. Just felt like it. Anyway, here's the dealio. Catering staff were shocked to find they didn't have any hot cross buns to hand out on Good Friday. They claim that their manager said it was to do with not offending other faiths. Upon checking, it turns out that it was all just a mistake and the hot cross buns were distributed on Sunday or Monday because they hadn't been ordered in time. Given that this non-story is in the Mail, it's naturally reported as the catering manager relenting and deciding to serve them after all. And the Express bizarrely uses the fact that not having ordered hot cross buns in time for Good Friday would be a mistake as evidence that it couldn't have been a mistake.

Given that the story wasn't reported in the Poole Echo until after the hot cross buns were served, it's difficult to see what the manager was supposed to be relenting over, it looks as though the official explanation of not ordering them in time is most likely.

There is a weird difference between the Mail and the Express's reporting. The Express reorts that the hospital spokesperson said buns were on the wards by Easter Sunday, and the Mail says they were on the wards by Monday. They can't both be bloody right.

One nice thing in the Poole Echo is the repeat of the claim that Tower Hamlets Council banned schools from serving hot cross buns in 2003 so as no to offend other faiths - a story that first appeared in the Telegraph and turned out to be false, which led to the Telegraph and other papers that covered the story having to print a retraction.

Although the Mail has reported this story as true since the retraction, it manages not to this time. The tired old saws of Birmingham City Council renaming Christmas 'Winterval' (it didn't), Luton Council renaming Christmas lights 'Luminos' (it didn't) and the Royal Mail not having Jesusy stamps last year (they do Jesusy stamps every oter year on rotation, apparently) all get an airing instead. That's good. A pretend Political Correctness Gone Mad story wouldn't be the same without references to other spurious nonsense to point to as evidence of the collapse of society.

The depressing thing is that back in 2003, the Telegraph reported the hot cross bun story, got found out and had to retract. In 2007, the Mail and the Express already have the explanation for this one and report the story as hot cross buns being banned anyway. Nobody seems to mind.