Given the huge publicity already gathered by Poole Council, bookmakers have refused to take any more bets on the outcome of the 2008 Erich Honecker Memorial Award, but that doesn’t stop us from briefly acknowedging the hard work still being put in by local authorities bent on making themselves look even more riduculous than they actually are (a not inconsiderable task).
Tunbridge Wells council has banned the use of the word ‘brainstorming’ for fear of upsetting epileptics.
Thinendofthewedge believes ‘brainstorming’ should indeed be banned, but on the grounds that it normally provides a fig leaf for those with no application to pass on an intractable problem to a group of people totally unequipped to deal with it, not because it might cause offence to epileptics.
Before exhibiting their stupidity the senior pen pushers at Tunbridge obviously didn’t bother to consult The National Society for Epilepsy, a spokesman for whom said: “Brainstorming is a clear and descriptive phrase. Alternatives such as thought shower or blue-sky thinking are ambiguous to say the least. Any implication that the word brainstorming is offensive to epileptics takes political correctness too far.”
Such is the precarious relationship with reality at local authorities that the woman in charge of the ban, Val Green, was forced to say in defence of her decision: “It is important to us not to offend people and we are sorry if through trying to avoid this, we have indeed caused offence to the very people we were trying not to offend.”
So let’s get that straight Val shall we? There was no problem until you decided to ban something that wasn’t offending anyone and in the process of your little daytrip out of planet earth you managed to offend the people you were trying to protect?
Tags: bans, brainstorm, brainstorming, nanny state, political correctness, tunbridge wells, uk
