Political correctness gone mad…

2nd August 2011

By Anthony Peacock

There are two words, which when combined, are guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any right-thinking person, and these are “health” and “safety”. Along with “company policy”, they are the last bastion of the intellectually deprived: convenient catch-all substitutes for the truthful response of “I am far too stupid to think of the right answer.”

Of course a lot of political correctness stems from increased litigation and legislation (to give you an example, the European parliament alone passed 14% more laws in 2010 than it did in 2009). Put very simply, with every year that passes, more and more things are forbidden.

Another factor in recent years is the worldwide economic meltdown. This means that people and organisations are more keen than ever to make a bit of easy money by taking other people to court; the flipside is that companies are now so paranoid about being sued (and losing the little money they have) that they are implementing ridiculous precautions that reduce their employees to the state of vegetative babies.

This is quite literally the case: I know of one company in London which has fitted rubber covers to the corners of its glass table – these were likely to have actually been bought in Mothercare – in case any of their highly-paid executives “hurt themselves”.

Then, closely connected with all of this, is the burgeoning environmental movement, which means that any activity that could conceivably damage the planet in some way becomes inherently bad. A solution often proposed is investment in new technology: such as buying a Toyota Prius (or even worse, one of those electric cars that look like oversized pedal toys). But in terms of ultimate energy consumed, what’s going to be worse: continuing to drive a slightly knackered old car, or making a brand new one from scratch? It’s not a difficult question to answer.

The reality is that the number of people who genuinely and passionately care about nature is far fewer than it appears to be. It’s just that saying so has now become the social equivalent of farting in a crowded room.

The uncomfortable truth goes as follows: any manufacturer who was really, really concerned about the environment wouldn’t be involved in motorsport at all, for the same reason that a committed vegetarian would never become a butcher. In fact, they wouldn’t even be involved in making cars. But to pretend that they are bothered, these manufacturers occasionally come up with concepts such as the hybrid rally car, with an electric motor that is apparently meant to be used on road sections. Not only that, but you can now buy a Ferrari with a start-stop system. Or an Aston Martin based on a Toyota IQ, to complement your existing DBS. In Formula One, they’re talking about electric motors for the pit lane. How laughable is all this? Presumably the person who came up with these ideas makes a habit of wandering into Burger King and asking for a double whopper meal with cheese, bacon, extra mayo, large fries, onion rings – and a diet coke.

 It’s strange how society has conditioned motor manufacturers to regard the truth – we inherently pollute large swathes of the planet and will continue to do so – as a crime, but gross hypocrisy to be entirely laudable. Go figure…