Over the weekend the Daily Mail claimed the BBC has "banned" the use of 'AD' and 'BC' for historical dates - replacing them instead with the more "politically correct" CE and BCE. It was, of course, nonsense and the Mail admitted as much in a column by Melanie Phillips where she conceded an "edict" had not in fact been "laid down ...from on high" at the BBC.
Despite this, Boris Johnson writing in the Telegraph has picked up the story and repeated the Mail's original claims as fact, all the time banging a drum for state-funded-political-correctness-gone-mad.
What's more Boris is angry he wasn't consulted about this thing that didn't actually happen:
"...we deserve to be consulted before the [BBC] makes a decision of immense cultural importance, a decision that affects the way we will ask our children to think about the history of our civilisation."
Warming to the subject, Boris adds:
"We are asked to call the years-before-the-event-we-cannot-mention BCE, or "Before Common Era", and the years-after-the-event-we-cannot-mention "Common Era", or CE. You should not underestimate the influence of this verdict."
What verdict Boris?
As an interesting footnote to all of this, can you guess which media outlet does use BCE and CE in its reporting of dates? That's right, the Daily Mail. Here's one example from an article published in February 2010:
(Hat tip Jem Stone)
Technically, the BCE in your final point is from a quote made by the archaeologist in the article. In the general text, the Daily Mail uses "BC" to describe the time period.
Also, if you search for "archaeologist" on the DM site, you'll see that the DM's house style is to use BC and AD when referring to dates.
Posted by: gooneruk | Sep 26, 2011 at 17:23