Murray needs to get out more

It’s taken me a while to read Iain Murray’s article “A PC passion for hunting down the great white male” (MW February 17) – and I shouldn’t have bothered. It was as odorous a pile of prejudice as one could hope to have been consigned to the ignorant past – or, at least, the wilder reaches of the antediluvian press.

Murray rants against “political correctness” (PC) – that dreadful philosophy that says we shouldn’t use offensive terms against anyone, nor judge them on the colour of their skin, creed or physical attributes. What does he truly fear? He claims students on US university campuses are taught that “there is no correct answer to any question”.

Perhaps Murray could tell us which universities, specifically, he is thinking of. Perhaps he could also tell us where, exactly, Shakespeare has been banned – as opposed to the academic challenge being posed to students to determine “the relevance of Shakespeare to the modern world”. He will have difficulty because he is talking tosh.

Murray’s article shows him to be prejudiced, blinkered, unthinking, parochial and too eager to believe what others, who are equally prejudiced, tell him. If he objects to any of that, tell him not to be so precious. If he wants to see articles or books arguing the case for PC, tell him to contact me.

However, he is right about one thing: the number of advertisements featuring “bright women” and “bumbling men”. But he is wrong to say they’re PC. They’re not. They’re as unimaginative, imitative and idiotic as he suggests they are. Their creators should get out more – but so should Murray.

Ruari McCallion

Salisbury

Wiltshire