A local business I know has a vacancy for an Office Junior. They thought they would use the Job Centre service to advertise the position and rang up to give them the details.

All was going smoothly until the employer stated that amongst the skills required would be “good basic english and maths skills”.

The person at the Job Centre was unsure about this and so went away to consult with his supervisor. On his return he told the employer that he couldn’t ask for “good basic english” it had to be “good communication skills”. The implication being that it would somehow be offensive or racist to request english skills.

Political correctness gone mad. Personally I have come across (sadly) many white english people that can barely string a sentence together and certainly don’t have the most basic grasp of english and many foreigners and black or asian heritage Brits with excellent english skills.

Perhaps we can look forward to English Language at schools being replaced by “communication skills”.