Racial confusion reigns: I saw a news story on the ceefax service that said a woman councillor had called another female councillor a "coconut" and has been seriously pursued and penalised for it...in fact not only did she suffer and endure the wrath of all sorts of committees following the remark, she was even suspended as a councillor, and eventually a year later ended up before the Beak charged with racial harassment under the Public Order Act. She got a 12 month conditional discharge.
The councillor using the term "coconut" was a woolly Libdem and it was adressed to an Asian Conservative.
This is a bit worrying all round because even from my own point of view I am unaware that the term coconut is offensive. Totally unaware...so you can see how easy it is to make an editorial error these days and cause widespread offense. To me a coconut is a bloody coconut with horrible white bits.
Can you comprehend this incident though...going all the way to the Courts, probably pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service. While Im aware we should be sensitive on obvious racial issues this kind of case is a waste of public time and money...at a time when we have no public money. The nation is hamstrung by over-sensitive red tape and in some cases fear. Fear to open one's gob.
Ah..as I write the item has just featured on R4. Its gone national!
