Council Ranks Term 'British' With 'Negroes' And Bans It In Case It Upsets Scots, Welsh and Minorities

The word ‘British’ can be as offensive as ‘negro’ and ‘half-caste’, according to a race relations body.

The publicly-funded organisation’s views have been adopted by Caerphilly council in South Wales for a leaflet advising staff on how to deal with the public.

In a section on what words or phrases not to use to avoid causing offence, the leaflet solemnly informs the council’s 9,000 workers: ‘The idea of “British” implies a false sense of unity – many Scots, Welsh and Irish resist being called British and the land denoted by the term contains a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions.’

The suggestion the word ‘British’ should be avoided appears alongside similar sections which warn that ‘half-caste’ implies ‘a person is not whole and so should be avoided’ and that ‘negro’ has ‘racist overtones and is linked with the slave trade’.

The man behind the advice is former Labour minister Ron Davies – who lost his Cabinet job in 1998 after what he described as a ‘moment of madness’, when he was robbed after meeting a man on Clapham Common, a well-known gay haunt.

He has been the head of Valleys Race Equality Council (Valrec) for five years. Valrec is funded by councils and the Commission for Racial Equality and it pays Mr Davies £27,000 a year.

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