Tackling homophobic bullying is 'politically correct nonsense' claims Mail and MP

A month ago, the Mail was one of many papers attacked a school in Kent for trying to educate its pupils about bullying, solely because part of the 30-minute assembly was about homophobic bullying.

At the time that, this blog said:

It is almost impossible to comprehend how the media can attack schools for attempting to save kids from the horror of bullying.

Well, now Ed Balls has announced new moves to crackdown on homophobic bullying. The Mail website gives this story the headline: Balls bans children's 'gay' jibes as government cracks down on sexual bullying.

The question is: why does it feel the need to put gay in quote marks? Would they feel the need to write it in the same way if the focus of the jibes was race or disability? Almost certainly not.

But we know from the Kent school story, the Mail doesn't have the slightest interest in protecting kids from homophobic bullying.

The story adds more totally unecessary quote marks:

A fresh move to ban children from using the word 'gay' as an insult was made by Schools Secretary Ed Balls last night...His department is now set to publish new guidance to crack down on 'sexist and sexual' bullying.

And then prize idiot and tediously predictable rent-a-quote gobshite Philip Davies MP turns up to call this 'more politically-correct nonsense'. The Mail uses this in the third paragraph of the story and never challenges it, which suggests more than a little sympathy with the comment. After all, since he doesn't appear to have issued a statement on his website about the issue, it seems journalist Brendan Carlin phoned up a man with form of calling measures to tackle homophobia 'politically-correct nonsense' to get the line.

So it's another stunningly original quote from the (ahem) Parliamentary Spokesman for the Campaign Against Political Correctness.

Here's an excerpt from what Balls said:

In partnership with Stonewall and Educational Action Challenging Homophobia (EACH) we have also produced the first-ever guidance on tackling homophobic bullying. And we will shortly be publishing guidance on sexist, sexual and transphobic bullying too.

I'm clear that homophobic insults should be viewed as seriously as racism. Even casual use of homophobic language in schools - such as the worryingly prevalent but unacceptable use of the word "gay" as a derogatory term - can create an atmosphere that isolates young people and can be the forerunner for more serious forms of bullying.

Homophobic bullying creates an ugly climate of intimidation and can make it harder for young people to come out. And whether it's directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, or heterosexual young people, our guidance makes clear that such bullying should be challenged wherever it takes place.

Davies - and the Mail - appear not to agree that it should be challenged. They are both scum.

(For more on the Mail's anti-gay agenda, reads Angrymob's Section 28 story, which has the Mail continuing to claim the measure was about 'promoting' homosexuality.)