You know folks, initially I had thought of awarding my prestigious "Prats of The Week" award to this shower; but then quickly realised that this is far worse than mere "pratism", it goes into knobhead territory.
What am I talking about?
I shall explain.
Do you recall your childhood days, when you read the story of the three little pigs who built houses of straw, twigs and brick in order to fend off the evil wolf?
A nice, harmless story.
Not so in Nanny's eyes.
For you see, dear reader, the word pig is offensive and evil.
As such, Nanny's thought police in Becta (Nanny's educational technology agency) have banned the story lest it offend Muslims.
A digital book of the tale depicts the pigs as builders, and was up for a book award run by Nanny.
The book "The Three Little Cowboy Builders" is published by Shoo Fly. The BETT awards are run by Becta, Emap Education and the British Educational Suppliers Association (Besa).
Needless to say, the judging panel, consisting of Nanny's finest brain dead thought police, didn't like it one bit. They said that "the use of pigs raises cultural issues".
Pass the sick bag someone!
What planet do these knobheads come from?
The judges refused to shortlist the product which, by the way has already won awards, and for good measure said that "The Three Little Cowboy Builders" might also "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)".
Blaaaargh!!!
The judges, in a remarkably patronising and divisive tone, said that they had "concerns about the Asian community" and insisted "the use of pigs raises cultural issues".
As a result, they "could not recommend this product to the Muslim community".
They also had a go at the stereotyping in the story of the pigs:
"Is it true that all builders are cowboys, builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?"
-Do these knobheads live in the real world?
-Do they actually know any Muslims or builders?
This absurd ban does nothing to improve "cultural" relations, and further isolates Muslims by tarring by association them with the intolerance and narrow mindedness that clearly the judges of this panel are wallowing in.
I have nothing but contempt for this judgement.
Where first you burn books, next you will burn people.
Here are the names of the joint chairmen of the judges:
Ray Barker
Director, BESA
Dave Hassell
Director, Education Content, Becta
Here are two email addresses where you can write to the BETT knobheads to give them your views on this subject, please make sure that you do:
-bettawards@becta.org.uk
-bettawards@emap.com
Future BETT awards should be boycotted by all publishers.
Here is Christopher Walken reading the original Three Little Pigs.
The thought police: George Orwell was right then, it just took a little longer than 1984.(I do know the thought police don't actually exist as a real entity)
ReplyDeleteTo me, this type of sillyness/pettyness does more harm for race relations than the far right ever could. It winds up the indidgenous population, breeding resentment and suspicion. It also creates jealousy as the local population feel a particular group is getting better treatment than them.
Makes you proud to be British doesn't it.
There are just too many quangos these days huffing and puffing up their own importance.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to the 'Are builders cowboys?' question is "Yes". Having spent the last week trying to stop floors squeaking and discovering how houses were built by major builders just 30 years ago I have no doubt at all. In fact the phrase should probably be banned as an insult to Cowboys.
The book is probably crap as well if it has won awards. How DO you reconcile, in a child's mind, a Pig being a Cowboy?
Animal Farm? Barn conversion I suppose?
You know the sort of people you're up against here when they refer to a book as "this product".
ReplyDeletePATHETIC!
ReplyDeleteWell after all, the "builders" also oppose that book with the destroyed tower - you know, the one in Babel. Oh, and it also had that wall that fell down after being huffed and puffed at - uh, Jericho wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteI found your blog after reading "Nanny State" by David Harsanyi. Good stuff. Keep after Nanny.
ReplyDelete