Carol Bleep Thatcher

Did you know I was a pom? Well, I am a pom when I am not being a limey. Well, I am a pom or a limey when I am not being a honky. Well, I am a pom or a limey or a honky when I am not being a farang or a yabanci or a mzungu. And so on. And it doesn't bother or offend me one bit.

A very entertaining, well-educated and perceptive broadcaster called Carol Thatcher (see pic) has just been dropped by the BBC for using the term "golliwog" about a black tennis player. Even though she said it in jest, she has no right of appeal. She broke the rules of political correctness, and that's it for her - banished to Ultima Thule.

When a Californian friend of mine told me some years back that what we used to call "(Red) Indians" are now to be called "Native Americans", I suggested that the word "Aborigines" might be more appropriate (even though they were in fact immigrants across the land bridge which is now the Bering Straits). She was horrified. "Aborigine", which is from Latin "ab origine", is now a dirty word apparently.

I watched a programme on BBC on Sunday discussing the current "Celebration of Gay, Lesbian and Transgender" month (I may not have got the title of the celebration quite right: there are so many variations on the gender theme these days). One of the participants objected to being called "homosexual" - which he proudly was, by the way - on the grounds that it was "a Victorian coinage". He said he preferred to be called "gay", even though, meinetwegen, he looked wretchedly miserable.

The world has gone fucking mad. Censor that phrase if you want, but it expresses just how I feel right now.

Indulge me, it's at least a week since my last Grumpy Old Man outburst.