Apparently Brighton and Hove City Council is proposing to ban formal titles such as Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms from their official letters and documents.
Why ?
In case they offend the transgender community !!!
It seems that the Brighton councillors are actually going to waste time and have a vote on this proposal. It is said that there have been complaints that the use of traditional titles on council paperwork “forces people to ‘choose between genders'”.
I wonder what percentage of the Brighton and Hove population is made up of “transgender” folks. I’m sure that the number doesn’t warrant such a change. Certainly I am in agreement with the opposition councillors who have branded this proposal as ‘political correctness gone too far’ and that the idea is ‘ludicrous’.
They, the council, already have the ability to differentiate between male and female to determine Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms. Surely it isn’t beyond the wit of their staff to also determine how transgender residents wish to be addressed. They could do this by asking their resident population to let them know how they would like to be addressed.
Then it would be down to the individual and there would be no reason for anyone to get bent out of shape.
WrAnTz 
Hmmm…nice piece, shame abvout the premise.
Or lack of research. Brighton and Hove council are proposing no such thing. At least, that’s what their official spokesperson told me on Friday when, as a journo, i rang up to CHECK the story (as opposed to simply copy catting it from the next tabloid across, as most of the nationals appear to have done).
Nothing planned, nothing proposed. Merely one small issue identified, as well as a host of large ones, which might be dealt with in a variety of ways: but so far, not by proposing to ban anything.
PC gone mad? Nope.
Uninformed reactionaries gone ballistic over not very much. Yep.
Jane
Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to comment on my humble post. I am not employed as a “journo”, am just responding to the the stupid and sometimes lunatic things that I read in today’s press and media, regardless of how accurate those sources may be. So I own up to the lack of research. You may feel that I shouldn’t comment without running the proper “CHECK” but I, like the many hundreds of thousands that read the articles in the British press, have to assume a certain level of integrity (tongue firmly in cheek) and that the checking has already taken place.
Hmmm…. I wasn’t necessarily targetting the above at you personally. After a weekend of this stuff, i think i was much more unimpressed by the long line of journalists just queueing up to reprint one another’s copy.
Though its a nice case study in modern journalism. It starts with the one piece in the Brighton Argus. Proliferates out into the nationals with a little hacking about and additional slanting.
And three days later, its accepted as gospel by the majority of the public.
That says a lot about pisspoor journalism (of which there is much about): but it also says something about the public’s ability to decode news for themselves. So no: i guess you shouldn’t have to check these things for yourself.
But as someone who investigates (and debunks) popular stories on an almost daily basis, i’d suggest maybe you should assume that in general much of the sensationalism you read in the press just ain’t true. Or, more often than not, it contains a kernel of truth and much embroidery.
Though i’m sure you guessed that already.
jane