Britain is becoming a nation of people afraid of their own shadows

Britain must be the laughing stock of any fundamentalist Islamist who hopes one day to wipe Christianity from the face of the world. 

We need never fear having our freedom, religion or heritage taken from us because we are too busy giving it away as fast as we can.

So hopelessly confused have we become that too many can no longer tell the difference between respecting other people’s faiths and customs and surrendering our own.

In Accrington the cross was removed from the crematorium in case it offended those of other faiths.

 Can anyone imagine the uproar if a Christian were to ask for the removal of a religious symbol belonging to another faith? 

This is a Christian country, built by Christians, its history and literature formed by Christianity and its ceremonies of state based on Christian observance.

It has an established church and Christianity is still the religion of the majority. Why should it remove crosses from anything at all?

Now, in an even dottier pronouncement, a professor of faith and public policy at Goldsmiths, University of London, says that we shouldn’t heat up sausage rolls in the office microwave in case we offend the religious sensibilities of others. 

So Professor, can a vegetarian insist on a ban on all meat? Those who support animal welfare a ban on halal products? Actually if reports are accurate his guidance probably means just that.

I am a Catholic who does not eat meat on Fridays but that does not confer a right to object to someone else heating up a burger in the kitchen. Whatever sort of joyless world are we creating?

Occasionally we tread too carefully. I was once invited out to lunch by a Jewish lady and as she was paying I thought it would be rude to order the very mouth-watering pork dish so I asked for lamb instead. When it came to her own order, she chose the pork!

So terrified are we now of upsetting people that a serviceman in uniform can be turned away from a hospital, a carer disciplined for saying “God bless” and a man demoted with a 40 per cent pay cut just for opposing gay marriage on his personal Facebook page.

 Britain is turning into a nation of cringers afraid of their own shadows.

It is time to fight back and to fight hard. The citizens of Accrington made their views heard sufficiently strongly for the cross to be reinstated. Others should follow their example.

 Any serviceman in uniform turned away from any public service should say: “I am staying right here and if you refuse to treat/serve/help me because of my uniform I shall sue and tell the newspapers as soon as I get back to base. Your choice.” Office workers should heat up whatever they like for lunch and ignore any instruction to the contrary.

Respect is one thing, subservience quite another.