I smell trouble..

[Galejade]

Sean,

I believe you misinterpreted my post where I referedded to sensitivities. I do not support nor ever have the use of language or actions which cause offence to others. Apart from anything else it is plain bad manners and as we used to say " bad form".

Part of the problem as I was trying to point out is that over the generations the concept of what is acceptable and what is not has changed – eg one poster pointed out that Agatha Christies best seller and an even older nursery rhyme were in their day perfectly acceptable – today they are not. Recently in the USA someone was prosecuted for the use  in the correct context of the word niggardly – by which I,  like you, would mean parsimonious or stingy – when someone else obviously considered  the word to have a different meaning.

A further change is the assumption of people that they have "rights". Hitherto the accepted concept was that people had obligations which if they failed to conduct was liable to prosecution ie after July Ist  you have an obligation not to smoke in a public place –  but there was no assumption of the corollary that this confers a legal right on a recipient to smoke free air.

Similarly there is now an obligation not to be racist but  I doubt that the one off use of an ill mannered or ill considered phrase would be racist under the terms of the act – perhaps Wit would like to comment on that – and that a successful prosection would result from the use of such a phrase and nor do I believe that  the Act grants a "right"  to us not to hear such offensive remarks anymore than many older people have a right not to hear foul or abusive language (as they used to consider it) commonplace on TV today. I can well remember the shock when Kenneth Tynan  was the first to use F*** on television.

In other words  legislation not withstanding  we are back to the old world – certain behaviour is  generally felt acceptable and certain is not – and the old rules apply I believe ie when someone is  guilty of an inadvertant breach of manners , form or etiquette  and that is you nobly pretend you have not heard it.

Perhaps younger people feel it is not enough to maintain a noble silence and that there is an obligation on them to point out the error of someone elses ways even though the offence on a scale of 1-10 is probably 1 at most. I would caution them that if they do they will either die of apoplexy before they reach the ripe old age to which they have a "right" or like me they will find that the conventions of manners, speach and dress have moved so far away from what in their pomp they considered reasonable that they best keep their "right" of silence or risk being considered senile.<br>

[sberry]

unbelievable :o

or like me they will find that the conventions of manners, speach and dress have moved so far away from what in their pomp they considered reasonable that they best keep their "right" of silence or risk being considered senile.

it’s not a battle, a discussion, a withdrawal of the right to free speech or a new rule telling you to behave differently – it’s just the plain old simple fact that some things should not be said on national media

i’ve already said how some of these posts saying they cannot see the problem read and grasshopper has put it most clearly i think – how hard is it to talk about horse racing in front of the camera without using the word nigger – for ****
‘s sake !

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