Anyway I visited the site to sign the petition and note that the government has added a disclaimer thus "The e-petition asking the Prime Minister to "to Allow the Red Arrows to Fly at the 2012 Olympics" is ongoing. This is a response in advance of the closing date from the Government - This allegation is not true. The Government has not banned the Red Arrows from the London 2012 Olympic Games. The organising committee of London 2012 will decide what to include in the Opening Ceremony and other celebrations - but with almost five years to go, decisions are yet to be made on what these will look like.And of course the Red Arrows played a memorable role in the celebrations for 2012, when they flew over Trafalgar Square to mark London winning the Games."
Interesting to know where this idea came from, but I have signed anyway since if this idea has been muted the organising committee may well decide to exclude them. An example of what the good burghers of the Sun may see as "political correctness gone mad"? Well, guaranteed to cause a storm anyway. I am the first one to object to racist/sexist/homophobic jokes that reinforce negative stereotypes, however, I can't abide the oversensitivity that "bans Christmas" etc. This, if true, seems to fall into that category. The Red Arrows are part of our heritage, if the great and the good are in a tizz about whether they may offend some, my feeling is GETALIFE! Their sensibilities are at best ill judged and at worst praternalistic (no, that is not a misspelling!)
