Big Ron

I didn't like his language - any of it. But Kevin Myers hits the nail on the head.

"We have created a politically correct linguistic apartheid, in which some people have a monopoly over certain words: homosexuals can say queer, the Irish can say paddy or mick, Bangladeshis can say Paki, and Afro-Caribbeans can say nigger or coon. And an Anglo-Saxon Englishman can say Sweet Fanny Adams."

For examples of which, see :

The late Queercompany.com

This whiskey.

This enterprising entrepreneur

And Chris ("I am tired of niggers. I wish they would let me join the Ku Klux Klan. I'd do a drive-by from LA to Brooklyn.") Rock or any US rap artist.

No white entertainer would be able to make a career nowadays using G H Elliott's stage name. My mother saw him in blackface at the Swansea Empire when she was nine. She didn't appear to have been affected by it.

Still, at least Big Ron actually used the bad word. No, not the f-word ! God, some people get offended so easily ! Are you some kind of Christian ? The n-word ! And according to the Birmingham Sunday Mercury Big Ron also called Paul McGrath the c-word when he was Villa manager. No, not THAT c-word ! Don't be such a prude ! The G H Elliott word !

But in the States you can lose your job without using n- or c-words - for describing a budget allocation as 'niggardly'. John H. McWhorter, Professor of Linguistics at Berkeley and City Journal contributor, comments on this and a great deal more. Too complex to summarise but a great read. Recommended.