It seems political correctness has become an obsession – now ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous – and with the loss of common sense, anything and everything is being misconstrued as offensive.

 For example, school blackboards are now referred to as chalkboards, Christmas lights are now known as festive lights and to avoid offending women, manholes have been renamed as personnel access units. I know, try and take this seriously peeps.

 Let’s just focus on poor Dennis the Menace, the wonderfully naughty cartoon character and his dog Gnasher, who has forcibly had a makeover to appear less of a trouble maker and now known as just Dennis, sadly losing his menace. As for Punch & Judy, the staple British seaside act that has amused adults and children alike for centuries, they are now deemed too abusive and conceived to glorify domestic abuse, sadly, there are now only three shows remaining in the UK. Recently, a recruitment agency in Hertfordshire were told, when advertising to fill a vacancy, not to use the words ‘reliable’ or ‘hard working’ in case they offended unreliable people! Sadly, this week, Welsh rugby banned the iconic song ‘Delilah’, after years of being a pre-match routine, due to its violent connotations – with all the thuggish and ferocious behaviour going on in the world today, I would be very surprised if any of the above has had any influence.

 It seems everything we say or do these days causes offence to someone. Our history throughout the ages with all its brutality, needs to be digested and learnt from and something that should not be removed from our schools. How can we learn who we are if we have no idea where we have come from. One school in England banned a Wonder Woman lunch box, claiming the character condoned violence, and a council renamed ‘brainstorming’ to ‘thought showers’ for fear of offending epileptics, whilst it was reported that some people assumed cats had actually been butchered, accusing a council of animal cruelty when its engineers used the phrase ‘cats’ eyes’ to describe the safety lights in the centre of the road. Honestly!

 As for nursery rhymes being offensive and causing negativity – I’m lost for words. I googled the meanings of some of these rhymes and there appears varying descriptions for them throughout bygone times. Children have been singing and playing along to these for centuries, totally oblivious to any connotations of violence.

 Sadly, its bye bye to my favourite dessert, Spotted Dick, just doesn’t seem the same ordering a Spotted Richard does it. Let’s hope common sense begins to shine through all this bull.