Jottings
News from the UK and around the World compiled by Dave Jamieson
... the wild , the wacky , the wonderful , the weird and the downright infuriating
PC Roundup
An “ Are you being served ?” moment , inoffensive coffee mugs , banned pencil cases and snowflake students . It ’ s been quite a month for our eagle-eyed team of PC Spies .
A lecturer at King ’ s College has been reported for making a light-hearted joke to colleagues while sharing a lift during a conference . As Richard Ned Lebow pressed the button for the seventh floor , he commented , “ Lingerie on the seventh !” in the style of a department store lift operator .
Also in the lift was a Professor of Women and Gender Studies from a college in Massachusetts , Simona Shironi . She said nothing at the time because , she explained later , she was “ quite shaken ” and “ froze ,” but when the fragile soul had recovered sufficiently , she reported him and he was suspended . Shironi was later quoted as saying , “ This man thought it was funny to make a reference to men shopping for lingerie while attending an academic conference .” Professor Lebow said he , “ certainly had no desire to insult women or to make ( them ) feel uncomfortable ,” but refused to offer an “ unequivocal apology ” as ordered by the International Studies Association who described his comment as , “ offensive and inappropriate .”
In Whitby , two volunteers who crew the town ’ s lifeboat have been let go , and four others have resigned in protest . At the centre of the row is an unnamed senior female member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution ( RNLI ) who discovered two coffee mugs with pictures of semi-naked women on them .
She branded them a “ safeguarding risk ” in case visiting school children saw them and said that , if the two men were to destroy the crockery , no more would be said . However , they were then subjected to a disciplinary hearing which included a review of their private Whatsapp messages , before being told they were no longer needed . The official reason was given as , “ production of inappropriate material of a sexual nature .”
The men , who have saved lives and
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