DIARY
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN The Washington Post and the New York Times last week gave into pressure from the FBI and the Attorney-General and agreed to publish a 35,000-word manifesto from a serial killer calling himself the Unabomber. While such a tedious tract would seem bizarre if published in the Daily Mail or even the Independent, it is unlikely that readers of the two newspapers concerned would have noticed much difference. American newspapers are invariably grey, at best worthy and more often than not unreadable, packed with proselytising liber- al opinion written in laboured prose. Amer- ican journalists take themselves far more seriously than their Fleet Street counter- parts and for the most part have surren- dered to the forces of political correctness. At last there is a backlash. The New Repub- lic has published an essay which exposes evidence, obtained from anonymous sources, of a growing disquiet in the Wash- ington Post newsroom among white staff reporters at the paper's obsession with 'affirmative action' and 'diversity'. They particularly object to plans to force white employees to wear signs around their necks, reading 'Laugh At Me' and 'Ignore Me' as part of a 'racism awareness pro- gramme'. It couldn't happen here — could it? — even though my old boss at the Sun, Kelvin Mackenzie, once ordered a hapless sub-editor to wear a dunce's cap in the office because he got the bingo numbers muddled up. After publishing the weasel words of the Unabomber, the editors of the Washington Post and New York Times should be forced to suffer a similar penance.
It is because America is essentially an intolerant nation that such draconian mea- sures have to be used to enforce tolerance. For all the 'diversity training', 'affirmative action' programmes and the 'have a nice day' culture, relations between the races, between men and women, between smok- ers and non-smokers, for that matter, are much more cordial in Britain than in the United States. Try lighting a cigarette in America, even in a designated smoking area, and you will be greeted by loud coughing and a waving of hands which makes Joh McCrirrick look like an inani- mate object. The anti-nicotine zealots are winning on this side of the Atlantic too, with smokers forced to huddle outside office buildings in all weathers to get their fix. But for how much longer will even this small comfort be permitted? A factory worker called Ken Pidduck has been sus- pended from work for two months and demoted for smoking a cigarette outdoors on company premises. His suspension will cost him £2,400 and his demotion f280 a month in lost wages. His employer, Mr Jim Owlett, managing director of W.M. Owlett ironmongers, of Dartford, Kent, said Mr Pidduck was lucky not to be sacked for `gross misconduct', even though he had worked for the firm for 21 years. I'm sure the Washington Post would approve.
We must be grateful for small victo- ries. Two weeks ago, in this diary, I object- ed to the way in which British Airways crews had begun to speak American. For instance, when offered a basket of rolls on a recent flight back from Detroit, I was asked: 'Mr Littlejohn, do you have any bread requirements this evening?' Lord King, president of British Airways and a director of The Spectator, has been spurred into action. At a recent press conference called to extol the virtues of BA's new luxury sleeper service, Lord King also announced that staff had been instructed to stop speaking in airline jargon and address passengers in plain English. It's a start. Per- haps BA could also offer complimentary cigarettes to all sleeper service passengers.
Some weeks ago, a young man was mur- dered in Muswell Hill Road, Highgate, north London. The following day, flowers were laid at the place he died. They have been replaced and added to ever since and the impromptu memorial has become semi- permanent. This is a growing practice which should be discouraged. It is becoming com- monplace for floral tributes to be placed at the site of every road accident or fatal mug- ging incident. Relatives and friends under- standably want to express their sorrow. But that is what graveyards and churches are for. What is the point of littering the streets with carnations? Such grief is better expressed in a more private fashion. And if the bereaved want a permanent memorial, they can endow a park bench. The practice of impromptu flo- ral memorials began with Liverpool football supporters in the wake of the Hillsborough tragedy. Florists on Merseyside have never looked back. But there are times when digni- fied silence is preferable to saying it with flowers.
There is a view in some quarters that Europe's Ryder Cup golfing victory over America was somehow diminished by tele- vision coverage being confined to cable and satellite viewers, that national rejoicing was muted because it was not broadcast 'free' on BBC or ITV. Many object to the fact that the big sporting events are being hoovered up by Sky Sports and offered only to those prepared to pay a subscription. All I can say is that the sooner Test matches and Wimbledon fall into the hands of dedi- cated sports channels the better. Then cricket fans won't have to suffer constant interruption of Test coverage, and those of us who hate tennis won't be subjected to wall-to-wall Wimbledon on both BBC channels every year. The advent of digital broadcasting means that the BBC and ITV will soon be able to offer dedicated sub- scription channels to compete with Sky. The days of the nation being offered the Cup Final on both the BBC and ITV are happily long gone and the greatest social benefit of multi-channel TV has been the elimination of those predictable early morning conversations: 'Did you see . . . ?'
After its success in supporting a college lecturer who was awarded £30,000 for being called an 'Irish prat', the Commission for Racial Equality is now advising a white teacher who says she failed to get a job because of the colour of her skin. Mrs Ursula Gregory is bringing a case against Lambeth Council, which told her she `lacked commitment to equal opportuni- ties', and instead appointed a black candi- date. The CRE seemingly fails to appreci- ate its own contribution to Mrs Gregory's predicament. In actively promoting 'affir- mative action' and 'positive discrimination' it has ensured that, in the public sector at least, black candidates will inevitably be preferred in many cases to equally qualified whites. To then support whites who com- plain that as a result of such policies they have themselves suffered racial discrimina- tion demonstrates a decided ignorance of paradox. The only guaranteed winners are the commissars of the CRE. It is time they were all ordered to walk round wearing signs reading 'Laugh At Me'.
Richard Littlejohn's book, You Couldn't Make It Up, is published by William Heine- mann on 16 October at £9.99.
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