What is Going on in Britain?

[davewitley]

Carol wrote:

> Neither the U.S. nor Britain can continue to
> knuckle under to such suppression. [A reference to the alleged 
banning of Piglet from Dudley Council offices.] Granted, it's only one 
office in
> one British county, but note also that Burger King has stopped 
serving
> its ice cream cones because the swirls supposedly resemble the word
> "Allah" in Arabic! How far are we going to go? Should we force women
> to wear burkahs to avoid offending the radical Muslims? 

Well, I'm highly sceptical of both stories, as both the Sun and the 
Telegraph delight in pretending that we are being submerged beneath a 
wave of mindless officialdom.

But, even taking them at face value, there is a difference between 
them.  The Dudley story, if the supposed decision is upheld, would be 
a matter of concern.  But the Burger King one?  No.

Burger King are not suppressing some right of free speech, or cravenly 
caving in to the demands of political correctness.  All they are doing 
is trying to please their customers.  If some of those customers 
say "I don't like the decoration on your product because I am 
irrational, and I have 100 friends with the same opinion," Burger King 
will not say "These people *ought* to be happy with our decoration, so 
we will stand up for our right to be bloody-minded and continue 
despite them."  No, they will say "We think these people are daft, but 
we want their money, so we will change what we do to accommodate them."

It's called the free market.  Nothing to do with political correctness.

I was unable to find anything about this on Burger King's website, 
and, in a sad deriliction of their responsibilities to the truth, 
snopes.com are silent on it.  Until some firmer evidence is 
forthcoming, I recommend an eyeroll, a shrug, and an exclamation 
of "Newspapers!"

David