On a recent visit to Swanage in Dorset I visited a bakery for a coffee and cake and noticed that the owner had labelled the “Gingerbread Men” as “Gingerbread Persons”.

I asked the owner why he had named them this way and told me that the Trading Standards had told him he was not allowed to name them “Gingerbread Men”! What is this country coming to and shame on the people at the trading standards – They have gone one step too far in my opinion and this just shows how crazy things have got. This country wastes so much time and money on such petty things as this, rather than getting it right with the finances and letting the banking industry going into melt-down – shame on the Government too for allowing this charade to happen.

Gingerbread men will always be Gingerbread men because that is how they were first created and I urge bakers to revert to the traditions of the UK. Stand up against the time-wasting PC brigade! Businesses have much more important issues to deal with than having to comply with crazy politically correct rules set by people that have absolutely no idea and nothing else better to do!

A bogus e-mail offering recipients a cash grant is using the name of the authorities which tackle scams.

The message suggests that Trading Standards Central UK is giving out £1m in total a year in donations to 100 international recipients.

But the genuine Trading Standards Central, a one-stop shop website for consumer protection advice, has no connection with the e-mail.

Officers described the use of the name as “galling”.

Circular

The e-mail gives a series of serial, batch, reference and ticket numbers to claim the “prize”.

The genuine Trading Standards Central is run by the Trading Standards Institute (TSI).

“It is particularly galling to find that they are prepared to take in vain the name of an organisation which works to protect consumers and businesses from scams and unfair practice,” said TSI chief executive Ron Gainsford.

He added that they would be working with the police and the Office of Fair Trading to trace the source of the circular.

Other bogus e-mails have been used by fraudsters to gather bank details of recipients, or to encourage them to call premium-rate telephone lines.

News reported by The BBC