In Britain, you will no longer be “blackballed,” encounter a “black day,” or find anyone’s “right-hand man.” Those words and phrases have been deemed offensive and banned from use by public servants. If you travel to that still beautiful country, get everything in writing because you will not find a “gentleman’s agreement” anywhere. From the article:

Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider children’s spy books, said: “A great deal of our modern language is based on traditions which have now gone but it would be silly — and extremely inconvenient — to replace them all. A ‘white collar worker’, for example, probably doesn’t wear one. An ‘able seaman’, under new regulations, could well be neither. ‘Spanish practices’ can happen all over Europe. We know what these phrases mean and we can find out from where they were derived. Banning them is just unnecessary.”

Unnecessary? Come, come. We all know that when one corrects one’s speech, one corrects one’s heart. If you look good on the outside, you will be good on the inside. Whitewash the sepulcre without, and it is cleansed within. We all know this, so of course it’s necessary.