Orwell’s Newspeak cometh
Let’s hand it to the European Parliament - in these times of economic distress and social turmoil, amid a flood of Muslim immigration that threatens to tear western Europe apart, and in the middle of a war on terror that has included at least three successful terrorist strikes in Spain and the UK, the EP has finally stirred itself to action and issued a dictum containing the solution to all of Europe’s problems: cease and desist referring to women as “Miss” or “Mrs.”
A couple of British MEPs seem to think that the EU has more pressing matters to attend to:
Scottish Tory MEP Struan Stevenson described the guidelines as ‘political correctness gone mad’.
He said: ‘This is frankly ludicrous. We’ve seen the EU institutions try to ban the bagpipes and dictate the shape of bananas, but now they seem determined to tell us which words we are entitled to use in our own language.
‘Gender-neutrality is really the last straw. The Thought Police are now on the rampage in the European Parliament.
‘We will soon be told that the use of the words “man” or “woman” has been banned in case it causes offence to those who consider ‘gender neutrality’ an essential part of life.’
West Midlands Conservative MEP Philip Bradbourn is calling on the Secretary General to reveal who authorised the publication of the booklet and how much it has cost.
He described it as ‘a waste of taxpayers’ money’ and ‘an erosion of the English language as we know it’.
‘I will have no part of it. I will continue to use my own language and expressions, which I have used all my life, and will not be instructed by this institution or anyone else in these matters,’ he said.
‘I shall also expect the many translators who sit in the European parliament to translate accurately the language I use. I find this publication offensive in the extreme.
‘The Parliament, by the publication of this document, is not only bringing itself as an institution into more disrepute than it already suffers, but it is also showing that it has succumbed to the politically correct clap-trap currently in vogue.’ (Emphasis mine.)
Exit question: How can anybody who has experience as an elected member of the European Parliament possibly think that organization is useful for anything beyond matters such as these?
