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Bored office discussion topic of the afternoon has been the TV quiz Bullseye. Mostly it was just an excuse for Paul to bring out some more of his piss-poor impressions, but then somebody enquired as to what Jim Bowen was doing now.
Chris responded and said he's been sacked from Radio Lancashire for making some sort of racist remark to a guy on-air. He didn't know exactly what had been said so investigations began…
It seems that Jim Bowen was sacked because he used the term "nig-nog" whilst talking to some black chap on the radio. He was quite rightly fired and most people will say that what he said is indefensible.
But no, not Mrs C Parkinson of Livesey, who leapt to the presenter's defence with the following…

I FIND it extremely sad that a gentleman of Jim Bowen's standards and talent deems it necessary to resign on such a trivial issue (LET, October 7).
Perhaps we should have our dictionaries trawled to make sure there are no more faux pas in there of an incorrect nature, political or otherwise - that should keep the finger-pointing "nig-nogs" of the world busy for a while.
"Nig-nog," is a play on the word "noggin," meaning a small measure, used largely in ale houses for shorts.
This also was used as a criticism as in "use your noggin," (brain - if you've got one!)
Calling someone a nig-nog is a long standing practice, with no colour connotations. It's been going for longer than political correctness.
Malice is the key word in this issue. Act and punish where there is need. We should all remember this when getting ready to point the political correcting finger.
Malice? Jim Bowen? I don't think so - not at the age of 65!
MRS C PARKINSON, Heys Close, Livesey.


If you're ever caught denying the holocaust whilst in Austria then maybe you can employ Mrs. Parkinson as your defence.

"M'lud, Mr.Irving wasn't denying the holocaust, he was actually denying the existence of the "Holland-coast". The use of the word Holland is political correctness gone mad and Mr. Irving was merely stating that it should actually be called "Netherlands-coast". How could you think a 67 year old man would show malice? He's 67! 67!"

People are strange.

My aunt read a lot of books about the treatment of captives in Japanese prisoner of war camps. She even met a couple of people who had survived the horrific conditions in the camps.
After this she wrote into the local paper and said that if she ever met a Japanese person she'd spit in their eye.

Her marriage to my uncle Yoshihama ended shortly afterwards.*



*most of that last story was true.