ASA says railway not screwed - Official

This from the Mail on Sunday...

Former Tory Minister Edwina Currie has defended a rail union banned from publishing an 'offensive' advertisement which uses her affair with John Major to mark the 20th anniversary of the then Prime Minister's decision to sell off Britain's railways.

The advert shows a cartoon of Mrs Currie and Sir John with the slogan: 'It wasn't just Edwina who John Major screwed. He also screwed our railway and millions of passengers.'

The Advertising Standards Authority is refusing to allow the TSSA rail union to publish the adverts this week to commemorate Sir John's rail sell-off in 1993, unless it removes the 'offensive' word 'screwed'.

Seems fair enough to Eye, although perhaps a little prolix...

UPDATE: This from Dr Trumpet...

Hmmm... another bright decision from the ASA. 

You can call a clothing store “FCUK” and get it past the advertising regulators, but not apparently use “screwed” in conjunction with the railways.

UPDATE: This from Captain Delitc... 

This gives me the opportunity to air my theory that rail privatisation is all the fault of the News of the World and Private Eye.

Had they been doing their job properly, they would have exposed the affaire, John Major would not have become Prime Minister and the destruction of 'deeply inefficient' British Rail would not have become a virility symbol.

The downside would be that we wouldn't have Railway Eye. (Hmmm... a tuppenny-ha'penny blog versus an integrated railway... Not that hard a choice Deltic! Ed)