Yahoo Finance Anne Robinson hits out at 'woke' culture
Outspoken TV host Anne Robinson has hit out at "woke" culture for "mangling" the English language.
The Countdown presenter, who was once famous for her cruel putdowns of contestants on the quiz show Weakest Link, said she is "fed up" with people telling her what she can and cannot say on TV.
"I am fed up with it, I'm fed up with people telling me I've got to say 'mixed heritage' and not 'mixed race'," she told the Daily Express newspaper. "I just think we're being told what to do by people who aren't in a position to tell us what to do.
"I don't want my language mangled - I don't want to lose the English language. I don't want to offend anyone but we're well past whether we offend people."
The TV veteran, 76, who has taken over from Nick Hewer as the first ever woman to permanently host Countdown, explained that she first discovered the prevalence of "woke language" through her chiropodist, and had her use of the term "foreigner" corrected by a Countdown contestant.
"I have a chiropodist, a gay chiropodist - that's not funny, I'm just telling you - lives with a gay partner, and they have adopted twins, and they have in the process, they have learned what I would call a lot of 'woke' language.
"Presumably it's from all the vetting that they've had to do, and every time I have my feet done I learn something new that I've got to say or not say, and I'm beginning to say, 'Who's the arbiter of this?"'
She continued: "In fact, a contestant this week on Countdown said he taught English to non-English speaking people, and I said, 'You mean you teach English to foreigners?' And he said, 'We never say that'. Is that woke? Does anyone know?"
Anne went on to explain that she wouldn't return to present a full series of Weakest Link, despite hosting the odd celebrity special since the end of its run in 2011, as they'd need a host with more "woke" sensibilities.
"I imagine there are a great many things that I said that you couldn't say now, and maybe that's one of the reasons that you'd need a host with an entirely different approach," she mused.
