It's 'Guess The Word!' Time...

A Tory councillor has embarrassed David Cameron by complaining that there were 'too many P***s' in his home town.

Hmmm, what's the word that's too offensive for the 'Fail' then? I mean, they haven't even used it in their HTML link!

It can't be 'prick' - not enough stars, and why the capitalisation?

He told shocked committee members: 'The problem with Colne is that there are too many takeaways. And too many P***s, that's why people don't come to Colne.'

Maybe it's 'prats'. Although, the capitalisation is still a little odd...

The council's monitoring officer, Philip Mousdale, is also being a bit coy:

'I also consider that the use of the term P*** in the context of a meeting of a public forum made it even more disrespectful.'

Hmmm...

Is there a clue in the context, maybe? You bet:

Mr Mousdale said: 'It was a sweeping statement not supported by any evidence and in my view it was disrespectful to the Pakistani community.

'It is frequently used or interpreted as a derogatory term or a term of abuse, depending on the context.'

Aha! Mystery solved.

And note the qualifications there. It doesn't matter how Cllr Benson meant to use it, what matters is how it was perceived by anyone who cared to do so.

What does the Urban Dictionary say about the possible offencive qualities of this word, I wonder?

1. A slang term to describe a Pakistani or one of Pakistani descent - used in an intentionally harmless manner **if** it's between non-Pakistanis or Pakistanis themselves.

*sigh*

All we need now is for it to be commonly used in rap music and the cycle is complete, yes..?