The French aren’t cowards and the Germans aren’t square-headed

Now that the politically-correct Thought Police have pounced on a Top Gear presenter’s joke about Mexicans, we are being forced to revisit some of our most cherished prejudices. So the French are not arrogant, unfriendly cheese-eating surrender monkeys; the Germans are not pompous, unimaginative, rule-obsessed automatons; Italians are not chaotic, overexcitable and corrupt; the Spanish are not lazy and corrupt; the Greeks are not extremely lazy and corrupt; all Pakistani cricketers are as honest as the day is long; all women have a deep understanding of the offside rule; the inscrutable Chinese are not intent on world domination by destroying all Western manufacturing industry and buying up most of the world’s commodities; our Westminster MPs never fiddle their expenses; all muslims are peace-loving and tolerant; our leaders – eurocrats, bureaucrats and local councils – never waste our money; Mark Thompson’s BBC is a paragon of good financial control; David Cameron never lies; George Osborne never lies; Ed Miliband never lies; Ed Balls is not a buffoon and a liar; Gordon Brown was a great economist; bears do not defecate in our about-to-be-privatised woods and the pope is neither a nazi nor a catholic.

Hopefully that is all clear now.