Welcome, Thaddeus, and well done on your timely and literate comments.

Amen.

Yes, welcome. Sounds like you may be a devotee of Spengler, either the Asia Times present version or the original. They're so similar it almost makes one believe in reincarnation. Let chaos rule. When only the mediocre can achieve the corridors of power, real power will shift elsewhere.

Why do you view this with such equanimity?

In turning the very agencies that are supposed to protect our society into agents of its destruction, how are unarmed citizens supposed to protect themselves and their communities from the chaos that will inevitably follow? Would you really prefer to visit on the unarmed people of this country the kind of vigilante 'failed state' that exists in Somalia, or to see people so deperate for law and order of any sort that they are prepared to tolerate Sharia law throughout the land?

I hope you do not have children, for their sake.

Thaddeus, the commentariat welcomes you! We've all been after postiing rights for a while now...

I was once a temp at the Department for Rural Affairs (subsequently renamed umpteen times) in Newcastle. The temps were in to deal with the "Beef Special Premium Scheme" - essentially extra cash for beef farmers. The temps were there because the standard staff were up to their neck's in foot and mouth.

What an utter fiasco.

So badly run.

Yes, the same building you've heard of on the news recently.

The temps were a mixed bag - mainly graduates from the UK's better universities. We were told once that a new temp would turn up two days later - someone with "multiple facial piercings". They took us all offline for a half-hour of "diversity training". It was hilarious - think Marjorie Dawes. In the end the "multiply pierced" lad didn't even pitch up.

He had got a better job elsewhere - lucky sod.

So I am not surprised by any of the abysmal crap the government is guilty of.

We who work for the government can not be sexist, racist, homophobic, disablest or effective.

Which is why I no longer work for HM Gov. Working for RBS means that I at least get things done. Working for myself means that I really get things done.

Welcome.

I'm not sure of your point in this post, however. If you are happy that a possibly talented candidate for the police service has been failed because she used the wrong pronoun, definitely a case of PC run amok, then I would say that is cutting your nose off to spite your face.

In any attempt at maintaining a civil society, quality policing is a necessary component, and many complaints have been made here about the lack of quality of the current British regime.

If you are unhappy that this has occurred, it doesn't come through as the item is written.

Best wishes.

Godspeed Thaddeus!

I don't know, seemed like your point in the posting was abundantly clear.

The system is broken, but that cannot change until it is seen to be broken to all but the most willfully blind... and that is why it is good to see the beast eating its own.

The old cliche about breaking eggs and omelettes comes to mind. Ultimately though, if Western socialism is to be defeated by some sort of inverse cold war, letting the state collapse under its own weight, we could be in for some interesting times.

I once nullified an idiotic situation like the pronoun gender situation by rewriting a rejected report. I added as many pronouns as were possible. And with each I used 'she' or 'he' or 'she/he' or 'he/she' or 'he and she' or 'she and he' more or less randomly. 'His' and 'her' were not neglected either.*

* Every occurance got a foot note explaining the usage per older and newer dictionaries as well references to current academics concerned about the matter.

I resorted to footnotes within footnotes at one or two places and concluded with the comment that some African cultures reversed the gender when dealing with past, present, and future perfect - which was an utter fabrication I am proud of to this day.

My best wishes to this 19 year old, and to his'/her's everywhere who are harmed by the witch hunters.

It reminds me of 1984, actually.

(No, wait, I'm serious. I hate it as much as anyone when people throw "1984!" around willy-nilly, but there's actually a parallel here, and not the usual one.)

In Orwell's book, Big Brother doesn't care about the Proles. The people forced to use NewSpeak, and under surveillance, are the ruling class (IngSoc members, I suppose).

If not for being so pathetic and harmful, it'd be amusing to watch the disease turn on itself.

Would she have failed had she used the word "her"?

One presumes not.

The meaning of "wrong pronoun" is here, I think, somewhat ambiguous.

Concerning 'his', my 1984 Longman Dictionary is clear: including "objective case of 'he'." Then for 'he' it includes "used of either male or female where the sex of the person is unspecified."

My 2000 (reprinted 2006) Collins Dictionary is not helpful on 'him', but I think this is but a careless oversight. On 'he', it leaves no doubt, by including: "refers to a person or animal of unspecified sex."

Modern English usage therefore confirms that we may safely say of the sergeant, he might be female.

Concerning the chairman of the selection committee, assuming the newspaper report is correct, we can be certain he is wrong on his English, whether or not he is madam chairman and whether or not he is right about anything else.

Best regards

Nigel S. I second your remarks on usage.

But it seems to miss the issue. For the PC crowd any dictionary or widely accepted usage that they dislike CANNOT be correct. So such invalid reference works must be changed if hupersonkind is to progress.

(PC is as good a term as any. I think it is a US term that has now traveled to all continents.)

Nick M I enjoyed your tales of civil service life. Here the big department is Immigration which seems to be expanding at a fantastic rate. A nearby company recently closed its office one Friday and two weeks later all the staff under the age of 30 started work at Immigration. I saw one of them recently and he told me that although there was a skills test at the interview stage it didn't matter if you failed because everyone who could be arsed to turn up for an interview got a job ! He had been working there 2 weeks but didn't have a clue what his actual job would be as he had done nothing but be sent on diversity courses :)

Welcome to the collective, Thaddeus!

It's always a treat to have lots of apposite Orwell quotes.

Thaddus (tremendous name, by the way), welcome to the blog and I hope you enjoy it.

Thaddeus,

First, may I join with everyone else and welcome you here. I look forward to many discussions.

Secondly, although emotionally I feel a strong sense of schadenfreude at this story, I can't join you in expressing pleasure at your expressed implications. As the system collapses under the weight of its own lunacy, innocent and otherwise blameless people will have their lives damaged. Even the people working in the system will simply be sensible people caught up in the coils of this many tentacled monster.

This is a tragedy unfolding.

Welcome, Thaddeus. And amen!

To say that 'the state will devour itself' implies that over time it will shrink and wither. I fear that may be wishful thinking.

All available experience suggests that the state finds it far, far easier to grow than to shrink. As the arms of the state grow and multiply into more and more areas of our lives, they have become less and less able to fulfil their overstretched functions effectively.

But the beast requires sustenance, all the while, and it is we who will have to provide it, whether or not it is destroying itself through lunacy, overstretch or lack of legitimacy. It will require concerted action to reverse this trend. All these diversity officers are not going to line themselves against the [metaphorical] wall.

All these diversity officers are not going to line themselves against the [metaphorical] wall.

Indeed, but there comes a point when the system gags on its own absurdity and that is the point at which 'concerted action' actually has a chance of achieving something. Three days week... power cuts... garbage piling up in the streets... does this ring any bells?

Welcome Sir.

One of the first things that New Labour did when it came into office in 1997 was to work to set up de facto quotas for such things as "ethnic minorites" in such "public services" as the police forces.

There have been a whole series of moves to bring such quotas about (whilst never using the word "quota" of course).

In my recent time in Bolton in the north west of England I read many books and articles written in the run up to 1997 where the various authors expressed their desire for a stronger "equal opportunities" policy (or some other code term for quotas), but complained that the Conservative party government of the day was still too influenced by wicked philosophers like Antony Flew.

The wicked philosopher Antony Flew was wicked because he cared what words meant (rather than loving to cover everything in in vague double talk and jargon, in order to sneak in "progressive" policies), and he also believed in the traditional definitions of such things as "justice".

Being active in politics at the time I doubt that the Conservative party Prime Minister John Major was much influenced by Antony Flew (indeed I doubt that Mr Major had ever heard of Antony Flew), but Mr Major was not greatly motivated by a desire to be "progressive" in the area of introducing quotas either.

Much as I hated Mr Major I must admit, that since the comming of Mr Blair and company, he has looked much better.

Dude! I think Thaddeus Tremayne must be the most British name I've ever heard. Kudos! And welcome.