Saturday 27 October 2012

Oh, Just Make It STOP!!!!

…Bear Grylls will now fall foul of new guidelines from the Scout Association, which has banned all nicknames in a bid to reduce bullying among its young members.
The organisation founded by Lord 'B-P' Baden-Powell believes that giving children nicknames could encourage taunting and bullying.
The organisation founded by Lord Baden-Powell has clearly gone as mad as almost every other organisation the nannying ninnies have managed to infest…
Training sessions are being offered to new and current leaders, who have also been warned not to use the shortening technique amongst themselves.
I do like the word ‘offered’. I suspect it’s the offer you can’t refuse, if you want to be a new or current leader…
It is particularly concerned aboutthe use of nicknames which focus on an individual’s physical characteristics – such as their hair colour, height or weight.
And who is responsible for this outbreak of cretinism? Step forward, ‘Barmy’ Sam Marks.

Oh, sorry, was that offensive? So sad, too bad…
The association’s chief 'safeguarding' officer Sam Marks drew up the plans. He told Scouting Magazine: 'Bullying can advance gradually and can start with something as simple as a nickname.
'Research and experience all highlight that name calling – whether it be nicknames or harmless taunting – is often the largest form of bullying.'
Brilliant! So, to reduce the risk of bullying, we ban nicknames! What a genius plan! That one's up there with blaming the victim...

I mean, never mind intent. That’s hard to prove. No, the ‘new and current leaders of the Scout movement’ can’t be expected to make judgement calls. They need firm, clear, black and white guidelines.
'We don’t have a black and white list of approved nicknames. 'If someone is called Frederick and you call them Freddie then there is no problem with that.
'But you need to ask why that person has a nickname – if it is because they have red hair or are fat or they have a funny face, or because they did something funny and it stuck with them? They might be quite embarrassed by that.'
Well, how about you ask them? And if they don’t mind, why should you?
Mr Marks continued: 'It is in response to industry standards – all the anti-bullying work mentions name calling and teasing as the main form of bullying.'
Translation: ‘ I've read all the stuff pumped out by the fakecharities and I don’t understand half of it, but my job depends on me coming up with a policy, so I've come up with one. Whew!! Earned my salary there!’
'It is about getting the adults to think about their behaviour and how they are role models, because what they do, the children may do. 'If adults don’t use nicknames then the children are less likely to do so.'
Yes, children will always do just what adults do. It’s the way of the world, right?

14 comments:

Noggin the Nog said...

The net result of this stupidity is to teach children that they are entitled to believe that their entire lives should be lived completely free from ANY exposure to ANY criticism, however slight, and certainly not anything that could be construed as bullying, which is now basically anything the child doesn't like, for whatever reason. These children will, if this continues, never grow up. Their bodies will, and they will have the outward appearance of men, but inwardly they will be forever children, and not even the innocent, harmless sort of social retard, but the kind that somehow manage to get in the Royal Marines, then surrender without a fight after being threatened by ragheads in a dinghy, then burst into tears when their ipod is confiscated, like those morons from HMS Cornwall.

We have seen the same thing with black footballers, and in turn blacks in general (I refuse to refer to them as the 'black community'), bleating and farting because someone called them and effing black c, which itself was a response to being called the much less offensive and perfectly acceptable term, a simple effing c, with no reference to skin tone. Grown men (I use the term loosely) crying about the horrendous suffering they have had to endure as a result, bullshit references to Lawrence and MLK, running off to teacher to tell tales and demand harsher punishments for the 'offender', because losing the England captaincy and being fined over half a million quid, along with several hundred thousand for legal fees is 'ridiculously lenient'.

What is most irritating, in both cases, are the legions of morons who are desperate to prove their anti-bullying/racist credentials by spouting complete claptrap about protecting the children, confronting prejudice, rooting out discrimination in all its forms, etc.

This country is fecked, and most of the people that live here are either blissfully unaware of it else actively encouraging it.

Devil's Kitchen said...

Actually, Bear wouldn't fall foul of this policy—so pervasive was Ed's nickname (even at school), that he changed it to Bear by deed poll some years ago.

DK

AndrewWS said...

I presume DK was at Eton with him?

I was nicknamed "Snail" at school after I turned out to be a handy sprinter. I took it as a compliment.

Anonymous said...

'..because they have red hair or are fat or they have a funny face'..

Quite. They should sack Grylls and replace him with Mick Hucknall.


microdave said...

What utter bollocks. I've spent most of my life being known by one nickname or another. At the firm where I spent the longest period of employment (23 years), some people NEVER knew my real name!

John Pickworth said...

"Sticks and stones... "

I'm left wondering just what we're protecting the young from exactly? Most mild bullying boils down to simple juvenile mind games; nature's way of working out your place in the world/pack. If we eradicate this method, what do we replace it with? Or worse, are kids left with inflated egos or absence of respect of boundaries?

I fear for the future... and the present

Anonymous said...

As others have pointed out nicknames are often/most of the time used as offhand complements, evidence of shared experience, of camaraderie, etc. (well, except for mine which whilst sounding like anatomical bragging was actually related to my surname - mind it did help when the ladies misunderstood where it originated lol).

Anonymous said...

Is this because Sam Marks has the nickname 'Skid'? Or 'Groucho'?

Anonymous said...

Bunny

When I was in Scouts there was a kid with the surname Bates, known as the Master.

Rob said...

This will end bullying forever.

No, wait - bullies will find another way of bullying people. Oh well. The best way of dealing with bullies is to punch them hard in the face, but I expect Sam banned that a long time ago.

SadButMadLad said...

I'm comforted that the Daily Fail commentators are pretty much unanimous in calling the policy bullocks. It's a good thing that Sam Marks was named as the source of this stupid policy - it'll hang round his neck for the rest of his life. Hope fully whenever people see him they will ask him about his stupid actions and he will be embarrassed about it and learn from his mistakes. But then I see him as the typical jobsworth progressive and I don't think he wil ever change his ways - which is why people like Sam Marks should be first up against the wall come the revolution. ;-)

JuliaM said...

"The net result of this stupidity is to teach children that they are entitled to believe that their entire lives should be lived completely free from ANY exposure to ANY criticism, however slight..."

Quite - and as John Pickworth points out, that leaves us with a generation of kids with 'inflated egos or absence of respect of boundaries'...

"Actually, Bear wouldn't fall foul of this policy—so pervasive was Ed's nickname (even at school), that he changed it to Bear by deed poll some years ago."

I guess no-one at the 'Mail' does journalism any more!

"This will end bullying forever.

No, wait - bullies will find another way of bullying people."


Spot on!

The Jannie said...

I bet he's never even Grylled a Bear . . .

David Gillies said...

I think the worst influence Bear Grylls has is that he teaches people that the first thing you should do in a survival situation is drink your own piss.