Row over council's use of British

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A south Wales council has defended advice to staff to take care when using the term British.

Plaid Cymru-led Caerphilly's equality book glossary said "many Scots, Welsh and Irish resist being called British".

The handbook said "the land denoted by the term contains a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions".

The council said it was trying to be sensitive and avoid taking "political correctness too far" but a Tory MP called it a "shocking" suggestion.

The glossary was supplied by the Valleys Race Equality Council (Valrec), whose director is Ron Davies, the former Caerphilly MP who was Welsh secretary in Tony Blair's first cabinet after the 1997 election.

The glossary also said that "the idea of 'British' implies a false sense of unity". It is a glossary and gives no more advice than a dictionary Ron Davies, Valleys Race Equality Council

It said that people from minority ethnic communities should be referred to as "British Asians" or "Chinese British" as "it avoids any suggestion that a person has to chose between them for identity".

Monmouth Conservative MP David Davies said: "I think it is shocking that there is a suggestion by a public body that describing somebody as British could cause offence.

"The fact of the matter is that there are millions of people across the world trying to be British and it shouldn't be offensive to describe people in that way.

David Davies said he was worried that "Valrec seems to be adopting a rather nationalist agenda instead of using their position to promote a sense of unity across the British Isles which is something we desperately need".

Caerphilly council leader Lindsay Whittle said the council was simply encouraging staff to be careful when identifying people's nationality.

"A lot of people prefer to be called Welsh [rather] than British but the press coverage has made a mountain out of a molehill," he said.

'Ludicrous'

A spokesman for the authority said it was "committed to equality and we always try to ensure that everyone is treated equally regardless of sex, race or religion".

"However, we also recognise that political correctness can sometimes be taken too far and we try to strike the right balance so that we are sensitive to the needs of minorities by taking a common sense approach.

"The information contained in our equalities handbook was a terminology exploring various words and their connotations - it is not a direct instruction to staff about what phrases they can and cannot use in the workplace," the spokesman added.

Ron Davies said the glossary was supplied by the organisation "three or four years ago" and "includes fairly standard definitions".

"The advice points out that many people will use terms such as British and it pointed out that the term British is an umbrella term and anybody should be aware it refers to people of multiple cultures let alone people who are Welsh, Scottish or Irish who would primarily refer to themselves as that before British.

"The idea that anybody is giving instruction is ludicrous.

"It is a glossary and gives no more advice than a dictionary," Mr Davies added.