Parish council accused of handing residents newsletter full of racist jokes
By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:20 PM on 08th July 2009
Critical: District Councillor Peter McDonald with the offending newsletter from Cofton Hackett parish council in Worcestershire
A parish council is under investigation after it was accused of putting racist jokes in a village newsletter.
One of its pages is peppered with bizarre gags which residents in the sleepy Worcestershire village of Cofton Hackett say mock Dutch and Chinese people.
Among the jokes are puns asking whether people from Holland should be called Holes and whether spinning an 'oriental' person makes them disoriented.
All the jokes can be found in the June newsletter of Cofton Hackett Parish Council, which for the village's 1,747 residents also contains less controversial details of public footpaths, a knitting group and a recipe for a fruit salad.
Now those behind the newsletter could face disciplinary action or even suspension from the parish council after it was handed to the standards department of parent authority Bromsgrove District Council, which has launched an investigation.
District councillor Peter McDonald, who represents an area including the village, said he had received complaints from several residents saying the jokes were sexist and racist.
He said: 'It is an absolute outrage the taxpayer is footing the bill for this kind of material. It's very childish and immature.
'I've had letters and phonecalls about it. It reads like something out of the Seventies - I thought we left material like that behind now we are in the 21st century.
'I know the monitoring officer on the district council has been told about this and as I understand it, it's going before the standards committee.'
Councillor Richard Deeming, the parish council chairman, has been forced to make a grovelling apology to those offended.
The 'jokes' on the Cofton Hackett newsletter
- If you take an Oriental person and spin him round several times, does he become disoriented?
- If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes?
- I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks so wondered what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?
- If the Jacksonville Jaguars are known as the Jags and Tampa Bay Buccaneers known as the Bucs, what does that make the Tennessee Titans?
He admitted the taxpayer-funded newsletter was not proofread before it went to press.
'I will be apologising in the next edition. I didn't check this one unfortunately. It is normally proof-read - it's just we haven't got a clerk at the moment.
'It looks like they are taken from an old article from some time ago and some of them are funny, but others are a bit close to the knuckle.
"The council is not racist or sexist and they shouldn't have gone in, the jokes were only to fill space.'
Cofton Hackett has rarely drawn attention to itself. It is most famous for the fact King Charles I stayed overnight there during the English Civil War, and for its former military aircraft factory.
Campaigners welcomed the fact that parishioners had complained.
Youth Against Racism spokeswoman Naomi Byron said: 'It shows that racist and sexist prejudices are not seen as acceptable in Cofton Hackett.'
A spokesman for Bromsgrove District Council said all parish councillors were bound by a code of conduct but added that he could not comment on specific complaints.
The chairman of the parish council admitted the newsletter was not proofread before it went to press
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Comments (24)
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Harmless fun I'd say typical of local mags everywhere; I really don't think there is any 'racist' intention in any of these
I think these are funny and nothing different to Irish & Scottish jokes, you cant tell a joke in this country without offending someone...PC gone mad!!
Those people that object to these jokes need to get a life and a sense of humour. They certainly are not racist jokes.
Oh lighten up. I enjoyed them.
Farcical. It is a list of jokes, not offensive just light hearted fun. I actually found them quite amusing, but then, I've got a sense of humour.
Its also funny to see all those with a non-job oops, i mean campaigners, jumping up and down at this opportunity to justify their job.
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please get rid of this government and revert back to the days when a joke was precisely that, lets get rid of all the pc rubbish and get on making this country great again and not the joke of the world.
- roy walden, bromley, 08/7/2009 12:59
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