Political correctness is purposely making the UK nuttier than a fruitcake

By Ann "Babe" Huggett

Last week, in my article titled "Every Day Is A Bad Hair Day When You Send The Wrong Signals," I explored the unhealthy appeasement to the Muslims in the UK's Avon and Somerset Islamic communities by the secular state police force issuing head scarves to its female officers for their use when entering mosques on police business. I argued that by stripping female police and Community Support Officers of part of their uniforms, I held that they effectively lost an important part of the power inherent in those uniforms.

I then went on to mockingly write, "So, police women of Avon and Somerset in the UK and eventually Dearborn, MI and Huston, TX in the US, today it's the scarf but maybe tomorrow it's the burqa even topped off with the niqab." So you can imagine my precognitive shock to find out that this week the South Yorkshire police force in Sheffield, UK actually ordered three of their non-Muslim female police officers to forsake their uniforms entirely and don burqas with two of the three also having to wear the niqab as well!

In what is an appallingly unilateral exercise called "In Your Shoes" geared specifically to understand the Muslim community better, Sergeants Deb Leonard, Deb Pickering and Police Community Support Officer Helen Turner all had to smile and say "cheese" as they sported burqas for a photo op before going out into the streets to be stared at in disbelief by their more rational fellow countrymen. Naturally, the three literally undercover policewomen were accompanied by four Muslim women guides, who eagerly explained Islam to them more than likely figuring that if they are dressing the part then they are ripe for conversion.

Of course, in return, the Muslim women were spared any insight into, oh, say, Christianity and were just shown around the South Yorkshire Police Custody Unit and CCTV office to see how their local cop shop is run on a daily basis.

While South Yorkshire police were thrilled about their latest addition to the UK's black comedy political correctness death spiral, they were surprised at the resultant public outrage. The fallout was swift, predictable and scathing in the way only British people can do.

A Tax Payers' Alliance spokeswoman, Fiona McEvoy, said: "The police should be spending their time trying to catch criminals rather than indulging in gimmicky exercises. This is political correctness gone mad — it's ridiculous. These kinds of schemes seem to yield few measurable benefits."

Then the spokesman for The Centre for Social Cohesion, Douglas Murray, commented: "You just couldn't make it up. The victims of crime must be amazed that the police have so much time on their hands that they can spend a day playing dress-up. It's not the duty of police to empathize with particular sections of the community. It is the duty of the police to prevent crime and catch criminals. After this are they planning to dress as members of other communities such as Hindus and Buddhists?"

While a Yorkshire regional organizer of the Christian People's Alliance, Sid Cordle, added: "As far as we are concerned this form of dress is a symbol of oppression of women. The police should not be encouraging it."

However, the best comment was made by man-in-the-street, Marc Oliver, who chimed in with, "Being an old fashioned sort, I always believed that the job of the police was to protect the public and ensure that the laws are kept. To me — and of course I may be wrong — an exercise like this seems nothing but patronizing gesture politics sure to raise derisive laughter amongst any Muslims worth their salt. Indeed, I think that the reaction of any right-thinking person would be to fall on the floor and foam. However, South Yorkshire Police can go some way to convince me by announcing that a trio of Muslims is to dress up as police officers and patrol in Muslim areas in order to gain a sympathetic understanding of the problems faced by the police. Then we will all know how we all feel and life will be really great!"

Don't hold your breath, Marc. Such rationality as yours isn't welcome in New Labour's "Cool Britannia." Better you should "...fall on the floor and foam..." because your "Cool Britannia" is "Cruel Britannia" to those who haven't succumbed to the insane national death wish that is political correctness. You may want even-handedness and fairness because it's the British way but the socialists in charge aren't British; they are Internationalists. They don't want to see British institutions honored and upheld; they simply see the UK as Airstrip One and are desperate to maintain any type of civic calm through a Neville Chamberlain style appeasement of catering to an increasingly hostile aggressor religio-political subgroup intent on domination and sharia law.

© Ann "Babe" Huggett