‘Coronation Street’ star Simon Gregson says if aliens landed on Earth they would be "laughing" at politically correct Britain.
The 44-year-old actor – who plays Steve McDonald on the ITV soap – is increasingly stunned at the "crap people moan about now" and the final straw for him is Lincolnshire Fire And Rescue Service axing beloved children’s character Fireman Sam from their adverts and at open days in case it deters women from signing up.
In a Twitter post referencing Fireman Sam’s enforced retirement, Simon wrote: "The aliens have landed done some Jedi mind shizzle and are basically just sitting back and laughing there antennas off at what crap people moan about. Sod this I’m to andromeda. Sorry shouldn’t have said antennas but they might not have c*cks."
The PC decision to get rid of Fireman Sam was defended by Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Services boss Les Britzman who insisted the animated character reinforced gender stereotypes about who can become a firefighter and put off women from joining because they are exposed to the imagery from a young age.
In an interview on ‘Good Morning Britain’, he said: "Lincolnshire is a very modern and progressive brigade, we have two thirds of our firefighters ‘on call’ that means they come from their local community.
"We struggle massively to recruit on call firefighters, and women are not wanting to join, they’re not applying. So in terms of keeping the public safe we’re struggling because women aren’t wanting to join.
"The message women get about the fire service starts at a very young age: three four, five. There’s been a lot of research about stereotypes of images."
Fireman Sam was the brainchild of Dave Gingell and David Jones, two former firemen from London, who took their idea to ‘SuperTed’ creator Mike Young who developed the idea leading to it being made into a stop motion animation by Welsh TV channel S4C in 1987 and it has aired on BBC children’s programming ever since.
It has gone on to be translated into 25 different languages and has been sold to over 40 different.
Simon Gregson says world has gone PC mad
