Do you understand the word "anecdotal", Lizzie? one incident, or even two or five, does not make a social trend. If the little pearl of spam-wisdom that started this thread has to troll back 10 years for examples and evidence, one could possibly surmise that there aren't actually all that many examples to be drawn upon. it's the same thing that happened with either the Express or the Mail last Christmas - the annual story about how "PC Gone Mad" is responsible for some town not putting up Christmas lights, but instead having a "winter festival" so it wouldn't offend all the immigrants. It turned out the story was about 8 years old, and that the idea had only ever been discussed at a meeting and not actually been actioned. But by the time such truths are revealed, the damage has been done.

This is precisely what's wrong with the kind of half-baked reporting you get from papers like The Daily Mail. They take one incident, whip it out of all proportion, and the next thing they're starting some telephone or e-mail campaign. And the dutiful sheep who buy the paper become suitably indignant about the whole country going to pot, and there they are, making their self-righteous phone calls. Down With This Sort Of Thing. Why - because it empowers them? Well, it might bring the illusion of empowerment. And for some people, that's enough.