Nanny, in her many guises, seems to have everyone on the run at the moment; even the police seem to be “running scared” of her "thought police".
It is reported that the Greater Manchester Police are adopting an Orwellian approach to the word “township”; they are banning it from being used in the force.
Seemingly it was adopted, around a year ago, to describe sub divisions within the Manchester police force. Quite how “township” is indicative of sub divisions I don’t know.
Notwithstanding that, Chief Inspector Jeff McMahon has issued a memo banning the word; on the grounds that, because of its associations with apartheid, it is racist.
As from now, all memos and signs with the word “township” will be replaced by the equally undescriptive word “partnership”.
The costs of removing signs, and reprinting letterheads, has not been disclosed; doubtless an enquiry as to the cost, using the new Freedom of Information Act, could be made.
Any such enquiry could of course be deemed to be a frivolous waste of Nanny’s time!
I wonder if the good people of Manchester feel any safer, now that they are being policed by “partnerships” instead of “townships”?
Good grief! Over here, "township" is good - it's a small unit of rural government, typically 6x6 miles (about 10x10km). American democracy was built from the roots in township meetings up. But since a word was once used by a defunct tyrannical regime in a foreign country, the nannies now consider it politically incorrect?
ReplyDeleteI suppose you have to ban "work" and "free" too. Hitler used them in one of his slogans.