Twenty years after it was released, the classic Christmas single Fairytale of New York by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl has suddenly become offensive. At least, Radio 1 thinks it has.
Station bosses have cut the word "faggot" from the duet because it is a word its audience might find offensive.
MacColl's mother Jean said the decision was "pathetic". "It's absolute nonsense. Really, this is too ridiculous," she told Radio Five Live.
"Shane has written the most beautiful song and these characters live, they really live, and you have such sympathy for them.
"These are a couple of characters who are not in the first flush of youth, I wouldn't have thought. They are what they are, this is the way they speak... It's like a play and it's very amusing and sad, and it's a great song."
It certainly is a great song. As far as the "f-word" is concerned - that's "faggot" - context is everything, coming as it does in the middle of a terrific trade of insults between MacColl, who died seven years ago, and the Pogues' Shane MacGowan.
"You scumbag, you maggot you cheap lousy faggot," sings MacColl. "Happy Christmas your arse I pray God It's our last." Ooh, she said arse. Are you offended by that too?
Quite apart from whether I find that offensive or not - I don't - it seems bizarre to censor the song 20 years after it first came out. It has been played every Christmas since then, and the world has continued to spin on its axis, there have been no riots on the streets. So why now?
Perhaps the BBC is over-compensating after it came under fire from gay rights groups last year after it rejected a complaint about Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles' use of the word "gay" to mean "rubbish". (He was talking about a ringtone, in case you don't remember).
But Moyles is unimpressed by the Pogues' edit, saying it is "ridiculous".
I can't help but agree. Forgive the phrase - and you might want to check the top of your screen in case you have accidentally logged onto the Daily Mail - but isn't this political correctness gone mad? Richard Littlejohn, it's over to you.
Still, there might be an upside. With all this publicity, Fairytale of New York might get to number one and keep The X Factor single off the top of the charts. In which case we should all thank Radio 1 for a PR masterstroke.
