The old 1950s Janet and John teach-your-child-to-read books, about two young siblings and their dog Tip going around and being really, really boring on a day-to-day basis, were once considered so dull and inoffensive that they were parodied by Terry Wogan reading out fake innuendo-laden versions of them on his BBC radio show, making the pair sound like delinquent infant sex-fiends.
It would seem staff members at the Black Country Living Museum (BCLM) had once heard Wogan’s double entendres on-air, and gained the impression the books actually contained them, for it emerged this month that BCLM prudes have now placed trigger-warnings all over said texts. BCLM is an immersive experience, where visitors wander through curated stage-set recreations of the area’s past. One exhibit is a 1960s lending-library, complete with popular books of the period, like a 1949 Janet and John entry, which now features a hastily appended front-page label warning that:
This book may contain negative depictions of people or cultures, and outdated views. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove the book, we want to acknowledge its existence and impact, learn from it and spark conversations to make for a more inclusive future.
Most likely what made the book fall foul of the BCLM trigger-warners here was simply the fact that Janet and John were white, heterosexual and socially normal, as was everyone else in the book, even the dog,


Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Wilfully blind, these proponents of the ’emperor’s new clothes’ will undoubtedly have the scales removed from their eyes one day by which time there will be no salvation for them.
Apart from being ‘useful idiots’ for the communists behind the scenes, who are trying to destroy our culture, what IS wrong with people?
Can they not think for themselves?
Their brains are so befuddled with faux ideologies that they have no desire to think outside of their little box.
Perhaps we should start putting stickers on all books apologising to future generations that these books contain outdated views that will be wrong in the future and now. Because one thing we can be sure of – some of the common views today will be seen as totally wrong in the future.
These Islamo-Communists will receive their just desserts when the Great Civil War comes to the Black Country
I also wish that much diversity is visited upon them on a daily basis.
In that scenario, they’ll soon realise they have been barking up the wrong tree.
Enoch was right.
He bloody was. Remigration. Deportation. Repatriation. Forcibly if necessary.
He was also a remarkable man, a serious intellectual, poet, author, accomplished linguist and a classical historian amongst many other achievements both on and off the political stage. He was a senior politician who had a glittering career in prospect and was in contention to become Conservative leader and subsequently prime minister.
But he made the mistake of telling the truth
The current Bishop of Wolverhampton is the Right Reverend Dr. Timothy Livingstone Wambunya. He took up the position in October 2024.
A detailed biographical overview of Bishop Wambunya:
Personal & Early Life
Background: Born in 1965 in Kenya. Athletics: Before his ministry, he was a competitive sprinter (100m and 200m) and was selected for the Commonwealth Games trials in Kenya. Initial Career: Originally trained and worked as a marine engineer. Education & Academic Credentials
Theological Training: Trained at Oakhill Theological College in London. Doctorate: Earned a PhD in Paremiology (the study of proverbs) from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (University of Wales). Lifelong Learning: He maintains an active interest in scholarly ministries, frequently speaking at theological colleges and focusing on biblical studies. Ministry & Career History
Early UK Ministry: Served in parishes in North London and Southall. Kenya: Returned to Kenya in 2007 to become the Principal of Carlile College in Nairobi. Diocese of Butere: Consecrated as the Anglican Bishop of Butere in Kenya in 2013, serving until his resignation in 2020. Oxford: Served as Vicar of St Paul’s Church in Slough and an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Oxford. Appointment to Wolverhampton
Nomination: Nominated by King Charles III in August 2024.… Read more »
That’s nice. You forgot this bit:
Welby rebukes new bishop for engaging in ‘non-canonical ordination’
Now, after reading your biographical overview of the Ethnic African from Kenya, may I ask one question:
HOW DOES THIS BENEFIT THE INDIGENOUS BRITISH PEOPLE IN ANY WAY?
Answer: It doesn’t. All the benefits are one-way, toward the Third World Invaders and their Communist Enablers destroying the West.
Today’s DS
The Archbishops must not let safeguarding be weaponised to shut down debate” – In Christian Today, Julian Mann warns that revisionists within the Church of England are exploiting safeguarding rules to cancel a General Synod event backing non-affirming therapy, in what he calls a neo-Marxist bid to silence debate.
Which brings us to the “thumb down”, but no reasons given for the disapproval of a text c&p from the bishop’s and church’s site without a single iota being added.
Is it that someone rejects the TRUTH? Socrates was sentenced to death, because he was urging the young to seek the truth about the actions of their rulers, but I don’t flatter myself that the bishop or his deacons would bother with my comment.
Perhaps, it is someone who believes that telling the truth stirs up racial hatred and therefore the truth must be sacrificed for the sake of a trouble-free society. Could be.
Is it a proud individual whose narcissistic tendencies stopped him from entering into an argument, in case they lost? Possible.
Or, someone’s impulsive, vendetta reaction, someone who allows the lower spine to cancel his lonely brain cell? Bingo. (time you come out from behind the sofa,… Read more »
We would have lost the war were it not for the peoples of the Empire, especially of the Indian subcontinent. For example,in Singapore, the heroes of the defence are memorialised, British officers, Muslim soldiers. I will always be grateful for the heroism and courage of our Muslim brothers.
Most of the Indian soldiers serving with the British weren’t Muslims and the vast majority of them were quite happy to be paid during peacetime but surrendered at the first opportunity when asked to do any actual fighting. Thousands then joined the Japanese sponsored Indian National Army. There were serious failings of leadership, training, tactics etc but given the massive superiority in numbers the Empire forces had in Malaya if the India troops had of been half as good as the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and a handful of other British or Australian battalions, Malaya, Singapore and Burma may well of held out.
Indeed. But. The British Army in Burma (now renamed Mayanmar) in 1942 to 1945 became overwhelmingly Indian and Ghurka. There were around 900k personnel by 1944-45, of which about 90% were Indian and Ghurka and some Burmese. Led mainly by British officers but with a rising proportion of Indian officers and NCOs. Facts are facts there. But one fact that is often ignored was that it was British doctrine and training and industrial products (aircraft, guns, vehicles), and American tanks (Lee Grant and later Sherman) that enabled it to happen.
I was born in 1950 and along with my twin brother learnt to read at a very early age (there wasn’t much else to do). I remember Janet and John very clearly, and once at school read anything I could lay my hands on. I’m now 75 and still the same – reading, reading, reading.
I remember the late 1960s when Oz turned Rupert the Bear into porn – terrible. (I still have all my Rupert annuals). What’s happening nowadays is sad but inevitable when one looks at the rush to either politicise or sexualise pretty nearly everything.
Angus Wilson’s novels are still worth a read.
Me, 1952. The Janet and John books were colour coded in primary colours. The first was bright yellow. Other colours were red, green, blue as reading ability progressed.
I could read a bit and write my own name before I started school – it was something I really wanted and my parents and grandparents encouraged it.
It’s amazing how utterly useless the native British population is/was, isn’t it.
Ethnic minorities won WW2 for us and millions of post WW2 immigrants and their descendants are the only reason the country recovered from the war and “sort of” functions today.
Does rather make you wonder how on earth those utterly useless native Brits managed to create and efficiently administer the largest Empire the world has ever known.
According to the 1950 census, there were about 40 000 people not born in the UK. Race was not mentioned but it seems likely most of them were non-White. By 1960, this number was about 400 000.
The population 1950/60 was circa 50 million so the percentage non-White, mathematically, was a rounding error.
Since 99.9% of the population had no interaction with non-Whites who were mostly concentrated in a few big cities, how was “racism” such a huge problem to require legislation – Race Relations Act 1963?
There were “race riots” in the late 50s. I guess they needed to clamp down early. They have doubled down at every turn ever since.
Editing the past and disfiguring books. So Nineteen Eighty-four and Fahrenheit 451.
We were considering going there when we visit relatives in Telford next month. Don’t think we’ll bother.
Or enemies regard it as vitally important to separate us from our past. Hence they have to replace our real history with presentism – racialist pseudo-history designed to denigrate whites living today by re-casting our history as a temporal hell.
“It was wrong then and it was wrong now”.
Well, hmm, my personal observations suggest that some of those negative depictions were correct then and are correct now.
I mean, inevitably we have to ask the question: why Pakistani grooming gangs? Not Norwegian or Finnish.
Yes, stereotypes exist because at the core of them, there is a kernel of truth.
And stereotyping is not a crime until it is called “racism”.
When you say “grooming” do you mean the systematic, premeditated and overtly anti white racist @buse and r@p€ of white female children?
Manipulating, inducing, coercing, dominating: more correct terminology.
Yes.
You are right: I inadvertently adopted the woke way of using euphemisms for crimes committed by the favoured minority groups to tone down their severity.
Indeed saying that these were “grooming” gangs suggests something far less serious than the systematic rape, torture, sexual and physical abuse that went on for years.
Thank you.
And blacks caused riots then. It wasn’t us it was them then and its them now.
Best means of defence is to attack.
Begin by withholding your cash from any organisation that hates you. Tell your friends to do likewise. Share the hatred of wokism widely.
Meanwhile, build your own library of books, dvds to set you free from online censorship and AI rewriting.
Establish a circle around your children and manage what they watch, read. Challenge wokism through school boards, PTA, governerships.
Instil Christian values in your family.
Be salt and light in your community and enlarge your circle of influence.
Complaining about the situation is futile.
Do something about it.
It could be said that the people behind this think they are doing good. That they believe they are in the right.
It’s not quite how I see the left-wing inspired maniacal behaviour of so much of our population. I’m not convinced that all of them actually truly believe in what they’re saying or doing. I am convinced, however, that they believe they think it’s what they *should* be doing because they think it’s what other nice people do.
I believe it proves people act like sheep, simply following the herd. In this country’s case, the herd is led by truly evil left-wing people who viscerally hate this country, hate our history, hate their own whiteness and hate the West
I saw it in the police, as more and more supervisors bought into the rapidly changing culture that the police was being directed towards. I heard so many supervisors say “I am offended by that.” I thought to myself ‘No you’re not. You just think you should be.’
You see it on anti-racism marches, or marches supporting asylum seekers, or climate bollocks. When citizen journalists approach them for comment, and ask them about their reasons for protesting, many of them are unable to give a coherent comment about what they’re protesting.
They just feel like it’s a cause they should be protesting about – detail doesn’t matter.
They believe they are good, wholly, intrinsically, irrefutably therefore anything they believe or do must be right, therefore any who disagree, oppose are bad, evil. They have the mental and emotional development of two year olds.
They are narcissists.
And useful idiots.
I bet a huge amount of woke garbage is caused by women. Women should have the vote removed, and be taken out of all positions of power. If you want a strong and sensible country you need men to be in charge.
We know it’s true.
They’ll regret it one day when they realise they should have spoken up sooner.
My Garvey ancestors (no relation to the Marcus Garvey puffed by Malcolm X in Smethwick) were to a man Black Country iron-workers from 1820 on. I don’t have to imagine how they would react to what the Black Country Museum has become.
PS Janet and John were not “heterosexual” – in the 1950s they were just children.
It is far from “mindless”. There are people who understand that manipulating these sentiments enables them to exercise power. There are others who feel the need to show themselves superior to others and are enthusiastic about persecuting others who fall short – and they are not content with personally confronting others, in fact they prefer those others to be bludgeoned by institutions and the state because they are, among other things, cowards. Both sets of people are my enemies.
I think there is a lot of mindlessness to this. These people were educated at university and are aupposed to be intelligent. We know this is no longerbtrue because there are only about 10% of any population who have the real brains to be at university. So millions are just idiots being duped by the rent seeking property empire that is the university system.
They have been propagandised and turned into good little communist disinformation idiots. I despise them.
I guess a lot of people who go along with it do it without giving it a lot of thought. I think thechap’s posts below/above sum this up quite well.