Christmas Cancelled?

Apparently bosses are scared of allowing Xmas decorations to be put up in the workplace for fear of offending people of other faiths. "It's political correctness gone mad!" say the usual rent-a-quote sources. What utter bollocks! This has cock all to do with 'political correctness' and everything to do with employers wanting to cut costs. After all, isn't it bad enough that during this holiday season most workers have the audacity to take time off in addition to the two bank holidays they get, thereby reducing output and hitting profits? This latest crap is no more true than all the other shite we've heard about Xmas office parties being cancelled because of bosses fears of being sued for sexual harassment, personal injury, etc. Once again, it's just a convenient excuse for avoiding the expense and sheer inconvenience of office parties. What employer really wants a bunch of drunken arseholes lurching around their office, photocopying and faxing their gonads in between puking up on the accounts manager and groping the shredder?

Now, don't get me wrong here, I'm quite happy to see Xmas decorations banished from the workplace and office parties banned, (the latter are a bore whilst the former completely inappropriate - work is meant to be dreary and soul destroying). No, I just object to the way everything is blamed on 'political correctness' these days. I wouldn't mind if those who bandied the term about could actually tell the rest of us exactly what it means. But, of course, they can't. It has just become a catch-all term to describe any initiative that right wing reactionary jerks don't like and which they either flies in the face of common sense or infringes their right to free expression. Like, for instance not being able to call black people 'niggers' or 'wogs', just because a few people of ethnic origin might get upset. Ridiculous, eh? After all, they're just traditional slang terms, often used in an affectionate sense, like calling someone wearing glasses 'four eyes' or dwarves 'short arses'.

But of course, any restrictions Xmas celebrations are presented as a direct assault on Britain's Christian traditions. Which is absolute bollocks. Xmas isn't even a Christian festival, as celebrated in this country, anyway. It's a straight Christian hijacking of the pagan midwinter festival - which I find offensive. Take it back to basics I say - all this Christian iconography to try and keep the God squad happy is just political correctness gone mad!