Cllr Salma Yaqoob

By Andy Goff.

My apologies in advance if any part of this offends anyone, anywhere in the world, but I’m getting a bit tired of people being offended. Normally the offended person is not the butt of that which they find offensive. They are offended on behalf of others.

Lately we have had the Sky Sports’ “offence” against women, resulting in sackings, the BBC apologising to the nation of Mexico, through their Ambassador, for derogatory comments on Top Gear, Stephen Fry apologising to Japan for being actually quite amusing about a two-time victim – now deceased at the age of 93 – of the Atom bombs we dropped on them.

Now we have a local spat in Birmingham’s Council Chamber where two Respect Party candidates failed to show, well, “respect” towards a visiting British soldier, Lance  Corporal Matt Croucher, and his George Cross, by NOT joining the applause. It’s not clear if  Lance Corporal Croucher was aggrieved, but lots of people were on his behalf.

Isn’t it time to stop this nonsense? Do we have to put up with people telling us how affronted they are from a second-hand point of view?

Isn’t patriotism a greater thing than whether or not you applaud a soldier for appearing in a council chamber? If that’s all it takes to “be” a patriot, then count me out as well.

We don’t have conscription in this country. Soldiers, so often referred to as “heroes” just for turning up for the day job they chose, didn’t have to join the armed forces. They opted so to do.

Corporal Croucher went beyond the call of duty in his actions – risking his life to save his comrades from a grenade. It was a selfless act, the likes of which has a fine tradition in the services. That action makes him worthy of truly being called a hero. It’s possible he might have been hurt by the lack of applause from Councillors Salma Yaqoob and Ishtiaq Kahn, but it’s possible he is more offended by being in a service that has failed to adequately supply him and his colleagues with the proper equipment.

Personally I find the latter more outrageous than any politicians’ or tabloid newspapers’ posturing in contrived indignation on my behalf.

It’s time the offended raised the issue and not the detached offended once, twice, thrice or more removed from the offence.

There’s a wide ranging discussion on this subject on ReStirred.com