Britannia Radio

EU Has Oxford University Press  Brainwashing our Children

Vineeta Gupta
Managing Editor
Oxford University Junior Dictionary
Oxford University Press
Saxon Way West, Corby
Northants, NN18 9ES

cc: Henry Reece, Chief Executive
December 2008

My attention has been drawn to the fact that your latest edition has omitted a large number of words which British children could reasonably expect to find in such an authoritative publication.  I understand from the editor of This England magazine that you have fallen victim to a form of multiculturalism which has been pedalled by our current socialist government for some years and which has now been discredited â?" even by their own admission. 

It also seems that a large number of words concerned with rural life and the countryside have suddenly disappeared.  Perhaps you now imagine that children live only in towns and cities and that this should be encouraged in some way.

Most of these omissions appear to date after 2003, which tends to confirm the view that there is an element of political correctness overwhelming commonsense and the British way of life. 

You may, personally, take a view that British culture should no longer be actively supported by Oxford University.  You may view it as apart of your job to influence the knowledge of young people by preventing them from investigating, for example, their Christian heritage.  Why else would you omit words like altar, bishop, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, vicar, coronation, empire, monarch.

Equally you might explain why, instead, words like interdependent, citizenship, EU and Euro are suddenly included.

The question arises: should you be editing this important dictionary or should it be under the control of somebody with a greater understanding of the values we seek to preserve in this country.

Ashley Mote MEP