Campaign Against Political Correctness

The Campaign Against Political Correctness logo

The Campaign Against Political Correctness is a non-partisan organisation in the United Kingdom created to oppose what its founders describe as political correctness. The name is sometimes shortened to the acronym 'CAPC'.

Aims

The campaign was set up by John and Laura Midgley in 2004.[1] It increased its appeal by appearing in high-profile media programmes such as ITV's This Morning. Since its creation, it has had the political support of MPs such as Philip Davies.[2] In 2005 John Midgley claimed that the Campaign had 5,000 supporters, including both those who had joined and those who had donated money or signed its petition.[3]

Criticism

Paul Owen and Matthew Holehouse in The Guardian and Andrew Hough in The Daily Telegraph criticized the campaign when it was revealed that Philip Davies had sent 19 letters to Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in which he asked some "extraordinary" questions relating to race and sex discrimination.[4][5] Reportedly, the most recent letter asks: "Is it offensive to black up or not, particularly if you are impersonating a black person?" Davies enquires: "why it is so offensive to black up your face, as I have never understood this", this led some commentators to suggest that he was "lobbying for 'blacking up'"[6] He also asked whether it was racist for a policeman to refer to a BMW as "black man's wheels" and whether the Metropolitan Black Police Association breaches discrimination law by restricting its membership to black people, an argument recently used by the British National Party in its unsuccessful attempt to maintain its white-only membership policy.[4]

References

  1. ↑ The first mention in the national press was in a letter titled "Tory proposal to review effects of Human Rights Act" in The Times, 26 August 2004, p. 25.
  2. ↑ Speaker Panel, CAPC
  3. ↑ "Answers to Correspondents", Daily Mail, 26 September 2005, p. 54.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Paul Owen (18 December 2009). "Philip Davies MP bombarded watchdog in 'political correctness' campaign". London: The Guardian.
  5. ↑ Andrew Hough "Philip Davies: Tory MP 'never understood' why blacking-up was offensive", Daily Telegraph, 19 December 2009
  6. ↑ Helen Nugent (December 19, 2009). "Conservative MP lobbies for ‘blacking up’". London: The Times.

External links