...listening to Radio 2 in the car the Saturday before last.

that stars are able to get away with phoning OAPs and leaving messages on their answerphones about intimate relationships with their family memebers with absolutely no repercussions whatsoever! Oh, wait...

On a more serious note, I'd say the chauvinism in a lot of gangsta rap, often in the higher echelons of the singles/download charts. I'm not sure why more rappers aren't brought to task over it, not to mention the, ahem, tasteful artwork and videos that endorse said music.

Oh, and I don't think that years ago people would have believed we'd have a #1 single in the UK charts entitled "F*** It"

vomiting in the gutters on a Friday and Saturday night having imbibed more alcohol than anyone should decently consume in one night. And turning our town centres into no-go areas as a consequence.

*gets off soapbox*

In 1975, it was absolutely fine for Elvis Presley to claim that "a man without love is only half of a man, but a woman is nothing at all"...

Julie Burchill (sorry I'll never mention her again) often referred disparagingly to his "Schoolgirl of the week" photo competition in Sounds. She made it sound really sordid which is not how I remember it but then I was only a schoolboy myself at the time.

I wonder why Roy Harper's "Forbidden Fruit" never gets played on the radio.

...on that kind of thing. There is NO tolerating racism, sexism, ageism, child abuse, paedephilia, negativity towards disabilties and so on.

What there has been is a tacit acceptance of certain youth behaviour that will have to end. Otherwise young men stabbing young men in large cities will become young men stabbing young men in suburbs & small towns, and young men stabbing young men in large cities will become young men shooting young men in large cities and so on.

a few issues ago. And didn’t that feature demonstrate that it works both ways: some things that were seen as perfectly normal forty years ago (smoking in a hospital for example) are now seen as shocking; while other things that were once absolutely unthinkable (saying “fuck” on the telly) are tolerated.

I have a mixed-race friend. Her father still refers to her as 'half-caste' because it was a perfectly normal term when he was young and he doesn't see why he has to change his language simply because the cultural norm has shifted. What's more, he's convinced that the term 'mixed-race' will also fall out of favour as people come to see the 'mixed' bit as implying confusion, as in 'mixed up', or inferior, as in 'mixed blessing', and a more precisely descriptive term will have to be found. And then, eventually, this new phrase will also become offensive and we'll all have to move on again.

Terms such as 'disabled' or 'handicapped' also fall in and out of favour. There is no word that is immune to being picked apart by the relentless analysis of political correctness.

...in the Government Department where I work. We prefer "dual heritage" to describe the different backgrounds of two parents, or "multiple heritage" where the picture is more complicated. Mixed race is frowned upon now for the reasons Fraser states. These changes in language often start in Government so this will probably filter into general usage eventually.

is that in the Fifties and Sixties 16-year-old girls were less physically mature than they are now - they began menstruating 2-3 years later on average - yet it was perfectly legal for them to have sex and even get married with their parents' consent - and, rather paradoxically, still is. In other words, why frown on it now when they didn't back when it took a court case to lift a 30-year ban on the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover?

Meanwhile, among all the frowning, the government wants to teach primary-school children the nitty-gritty of what happens when "mummy and daddy love each other very much". A wacky world? Noddarf! Here's Bachman Turner Overdrive....

too far. Jeremy Clarkson getting viewers raging to the BBC that his comments that Truckers are rapists is a case in point. Bandwagon jumping is obviously becoming a popular sport but excuse me the North American term 'going postal' is popular and originates from the fact that most lunatics going on a shooting spree all somehow worked for the Post Office. Funny that the Americans have been routinely derided for having a puritanical view of things but it is dear old Blighty where this type of behaviour is deemed completely unacceptable. Jeremy Clarkson may be a prick but for heavens sake let's lighten up a bit.

There is a chink of light however. Years ago Golliwogs were routinely banned from sale or display in all shops in the UK. Last week my daughter and I saw one in Hamleys. She asked me what it was and I explained and also told her that they had been banned. She doesnt have a racist bone in her body and didn't understand what the fuss was about. it seems like the kids have a grip on reality while we lose ours!!

Don't get me wrong, I really like McCartney, but there's something about the opening to that song that doesn't sit right, particularly sung at his age.

Sitting in for Aled Jones the other week (I have no idea how I was listening to it), the Rt Rev Rog Royle played this as his first track

In case you can't be arsed to listen, these are the lyrics of the first verse:

Take a pinch of white man
Wrap him up in black skin
Add a touch of blue blood
And a little bitty bit of red Indian boy
Oh like a Curly Latin kinkies
Oh Lordy, Lordy, mixed with yellow Chinkees, yeah
You know you lump it all together
And you got a recipe for a get along scene
Oh what a beautiful dream
If it could only come true, you know, you know

The sentiment's great, but I'm not so sure about some of the terminology!

... society is getting stricter and stricter on trivial tosh (jokes, toys, song lyrics, terminology) while getting laxer and laxer on the serious stuff (binge drinking & casual drug taking, teenage pregnancy, street violence...)

And it's all because the former are easy targets and quick fixes, a classic distraction strategy, like spending all the time talking about errant TV presenters rather than ongoing war & continuing economic collapse.

Sigh.

We will look back in awe that we found entertainment in watching oafs tear around the countryside wasting the earth's precious resources.

But liable to get them put on a register nowadays;

Rosalita jump a little higher!

Am I right or am I right????