Rue, Britannia...

Britannia rue the day/
Britons became PC slaves...

Oh, it has come to this:

Two hundred years ago a daredevil naval hero by the name of Horatio Nelson led the British to a glorious victory over France and Spain. But that might not be clear from watching Tuesday's re-enactment of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Wary of offending European neighbors who enjoy a close but sometimes testy friendship with Britain, organizers decided to dispense with details such as who won and who lost. Instead of depicting the battle as a contest between countries, they assigned the fleets colors - red and blue - and left it up to the spectators to figure out which was which.

One of Nelson's descendents summed it up quite nicely:

Nelson's great, great, great granddaughter called it a ``pretty stupid'' idea.
``I am sure the French and Spanish are adult enough to appreciate we did win that battle,'' said Anna Tribe, 75. ``I am anti-political correctness. Very much against it. It makes fools of us.''

Truly. It's not like the Brits were reenacting Mers el-Kebir, after all.