This great piece by Polly Toynbee from Friday’s Guardian should be the last word on the “OMG Christmas has been Banned!” nonsense that surfaces every year.
Birmingham City Council never actually renamed it Winterval, y’know.
13th December 2007
The Good Ship Lollipop
Ooh, it’s in the Telegraph! We are going upmarket!
A lollipop lady has been banned from wearing festive fancy dress because of safety fears.
Margaret Russell, 54, has delighted pupils, parents and motorists in Millbrook, Southampton, for two decades as she collects for charity.
But after a complaint by two parents, the city council said she could not take children across the road unless she wore her reflective coat.
Surely, says the Silent Majority (and they can stay silent as far as I’m concerned), this is political correctness gone mad?! I mean, look at this picture — can anyone really say that this cumbersome outfit, complete with peripheral-vision-restricting headgear, is a safety risk for someone charged with escorting children across a busy road?
Well, I can: “this cumbersome outfit, complete with peripheral-vision-restricting headgear, is a safety risk for someone charged with escorting children across a busy road.”