Easter Egg Non Story BUSTED

The silly season has come early this year. That is the only reason so many intelligent and normally rational people have been persuaded to believe a ridiculous non-story which originated, it seems, at the increasingly downmarket and desperate Telegraph. The Tel appears to have been aided and abetted by that part of the Christian church that is on a hair trigger at any sign of neglect or assumed victimhood.

Cadbury - the firm that makes creme eggs - has once again partnered with the National Trust to promote easter egg hunts. So far, so mutually beneficial. But as the exercise is called “The Cadbury Egg Hunt”, with no mention of Easter, all hell has broken loose among that part of the press that was not already ranting about Gibraltar.

And rather than wave away questions on the faux ruckus as a waste of time, which is what she should have done, our not at all unelected Prime Minister, being a vicar’s daughter and in hock to the press, has joined in the condemnation over the missing E-word.

Thus we have the BBC telling “Theresa May has described the decision to drop the word Easter from the name of Cadbury and National Trust egg hunts as ‘absolutely ridiculous’”, while the Guardian joins in with “Theresa May condemns National Trust for axing 'Easter' from egg hunt”, and the Evening Standard contributes “Cadbury Easter egg row: Theresa May hits out at National Trust for egg hunt name change”.

The idiocy has also engulfed Archbishop of York John Sentamu, normally a sensible person, and there has been the inevitable whining from former UKIP Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, who has wibbled “As I have said before, we must defend our Judeo-Christian culture and that means Easter”. What a complete and utter tosser.

So has “Easter” been expunged from the Cadbury Egg Hunt? Well, let’s have a look at the website, which, critics note, can be found at the URL easter.cadbury.co.uk.

The options at the top of the home page include Easter Hunt and Easter Products (so that’s three mentions of Easter so far). We are exhorted to “Enjoy Easter Fun”, followed by “Hunting for a way to make Easter magical?” and “Find adventure this Easter”.

There is Cadbury’s “range of Easter products”, “favourite Cadbury Easter treats”, “Easter fun in the kitchen”, “Arts and crafts for a fun-filled Easter”, along with four more mentions of, yes, Easter.

Just on the homepage, I make that twelve mentions of Easter. It is blindingly obvious that the name of the game here is Easter. And eggs and bunnies together can only mean one thing - once more, I give you Easter.

This is a total non-story whipped up by a desperate newspaper, the resultant bandwagon then jumped on by an equally desperate PM looking to keep in with the press on whom she is so dependent. Like all the “Wars on Christmas” that never existed, there is no “War on Easter”, no persecution of Christians, and no merit in flogging this dead horse.

Anyone would think the press wasn’t interested in real journalism. Just a thought.