The Crazy Englishman is indebted to his usual circle of concerned “English subjects” for highlighting a disturbing new trend of political correctness taking place inside “This Sceptred Isle.”
It seems that running out of ideas to interfere with the English way of life the “P.C. brigade” have now decided to brainwash children.
Having effectively outlawed many children’s books and characters they have now turned their unwanted attention to nursery rhymes with the apparent blessing of the British Government.
A Government funded project has decided to change the wording of “What shall we do with the drunken sailor” to “What shall we do with the grumpy pirate.”
Is there no end to the politically correct stupidity running rampant in England?
An Oxfordshire nursery has taken it upon itself to alter the words of “Baa baa black sheep” to “Baa baa rainbow sheep” and it would seem that the traditional English seaside children’s Punch and Judy show now has the skids under it.
This is not the way to do it!
Whilst Punch and Judy has some overtones of domestic violence most children view the show in the same way that they view Tom and Jerry cartoons. As a fan of both I have never been persuaded to dress up in a stripy costume for the purposes of beating up my wife just as I have never tried to see if I could flatten a cat to the thickness of a piece of paper.
What sticks in my craw is that this is just another way of removing the identity of the British.
The primary purpose of teaching these rhymes to children since the 17th century was to encourage the development of vocabulary skills whilst sometimes also relaying historic events. Another way of keeping historic records by way of mouth when reading and writing in society was the exception rather than the norm. Now we have a situation where as many as 10 schools in the London area have no English language whatsoever.
In one of the examples above: Baa baa black sheep was either a complaint against King Edward 6th for the “Enclosures of Sheep” law or a complaint against an export duty place on wool back in 1275. During my life I have seen quite a few black sheep but outside of a toy shop I have never seen a rainbow coloured one.
“What shall we do with the drunken sailor” was an old sea shanty sung when sailors had to undertake heavy monotonous labour (such as hauling up an anchor) and came from a time when sailor arriving back from a shore leave drunk or having too much beer (kept on ship because it was easier to keep than fresh water) was not uncommon. Some of the words (Hooray, up she rises) probably refer to either the anchor or the sails.
Britain was (not so much these days) a seagoing nation and therefore rhymes of this nature are a part of our history just as in the USA slavery was a part of theirs but I don’t see a movement there to alter gospel music.
The United Kingdom is deep in the heart of a recession and to get out of it the population will need to pull together and its government will have to show much fiscal responsibility. It is time for the Prime minister to take a lead here and call a halt to this shameless frittering of taxpayers hard won contributions which only serve to deny history and cause divisiveness amongst it’s people.
As an amusement let me try a P.C. rhyme myself.
What shall we do with the P.C. nutters,
What shall we do with the P.C. nutters,
What shall we do with the P.C. nutters,
Early in the morning.
Hooray taxes rising,
Hooray taxes rising,
Hooray taxes rising’,
Early in the morning.
Make ‘em all P.C. and waste their taxes,
Make ‘em all P.C. and waste their taxes,
Make ‘em all P.C. and waste their taxes,
Early In The Mornng.