The present Mrs Collins and myself were on our way into the new George Clooney movie last night ('Up In The Air' - seven-and-a-half-out-of-ten movie - some thought, much pleasant mulch) and the woman at the ticket desk asks for £11. I've given her £10 so we're rooting for the extra coin when the present Mrs C asks 'Is there a pensioner rate?' I haven't asked because in the past, that applies only on non-weekend nights. But it appears there is - we need pay only £8 between us. 'Thing is, we're not allowed to ask you' the woman says smiling as she gives me my change.
Dumb or what? It's like Belfast Metropolitan College's approach to the Senior Citizen ( aka Oldies) reduced rate for evening classes: they've ditched it, because they say they don't want to discriminate against pensioners who now (for Irish classes anyway) pay the full rate. Listen, BMC, I can stand it. Just make clear that there's money in my favour and I 'll find a way to swallow the pain, OK?
At the risk of sounding like a Daily Mail editorial, there's a lot of it about. Football commentators on TV will go to any lengths to describe a black player other than to say he's black. The same goes for talking about disabled people and, it now seems, oldies - to draw attention to what often is their outstanding physical feature - blackness, wheelchairness, oldness -any number of verbal contortions are called up. I mean, good Heavens, until you mentioned it I hadn't even noooooottticed that you were black, unable to walk, old, because you see, things like that don't matter to me.
The sort of disgusting thing is that such a stance, if turned over, shows wriggling on its dark side little maggots of bigotry. They're not mentioning the person's differentiating feature - race, disability, age - because, deep in the non-mentioner's black little heart, s/he thinks being black/disabled/old is shameful.
God preserve us from the PC ponces.
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