Only Yesterday I Posted A Piece About Things You Should Not Say in the US,

then today it appears you can not banter with colleagues in the House of Lords,

the PC brigade has struck again! no bantering is the advise given to the House of Lords, its staff has been told to avoid office banter on the grounds that it can be offensive, employees of the second chamber have been advised that even seemingly harmless chat can lead to other colleagues feeling left out and alienated, the ruling was made in a series of taxpayer-funded equality and diversity sessions on ‘cultural awareness’, during the two-hour sessions, staff are told that the ‘golden rule’ of treat others as you would like to be treated has been replaced by the ‘platinum rule’ of treat others as they would like to be treated, crikey I suppose the diamond encrusted rule will be next,

the House’s clampdown on banter has infuriated campaigners and writers, who insist it is part and parcel of office life, Chrissie Maher, founder of the Plain English Campaign, said: ‘I thought the House of Lords is supposed to be a place where people can speak their minds, I think it’s healthy to have banter and I don’t think it isolates people, people can always join in, and if they don’t want to take part they can always listen and learn,’ Australian novelist and avowed feminist Kathy Lette said: ‘the greatest thing about the English is your wit, and banter is your lifeblood, British self-deprecation and love of wordplay is what sustained you through the Blitz, and now they want to ban banter in the workplace, where are we suddenly? a Russian gulag? a sci-fi Orwellian nightmare of robotic people? remove office banter and it will be a case of the bland leading the bland,’

a ban on banter would be unsustainable on the floor of the House of Lords, where members delight in trading insults, last year, veteran Tory peer Baroness Trumpington, 89, was caught on camera giving a two-finger salute to Lord King after he made an unflattering reference to her age during a debate on war veterans,

a spokesman for the House of Lords last night insisted that banter could be ‘misunderstood’ and ‘cause offence even where none was intended’, She said: ‘the House of Lords values diversity and provides training to enable its staff to explore and understand issues, such as behaviour and language sensitivities, that may arise from working with a broad range of people, it is important all staff are treated with dignity and respect, and we offer training to ensure this is the case,’ will the PC brigade ever stop? I some how doubt it.



Diversity Dynamics, the company that provides the training sessions for the House of Lords, last night declined to comment.