Roald Dahl books edited: Rishi Sunak is the one who needs to stop gobblefunking around – Scotsman comment

With a major war in Europe, a cost-of-living crisis, an economy in disarray, and problems with the European Union to fix, one might imagine the Prime Minister would be tremendously busy.

However, it turns out that Rishi Sunak has enough time on his hands to trouble himself with the wording of a children’s book.

After the latest editions of Roald Dahl’s books were edited to remove potentially offensive language, the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson – presumably after a meeting with his boss to discuss this apparently important issue and, who knows, perhaps there was a Cabinet discussion too – declared that “the Prime Minister agrees with the BFG that we shouldn't gobblefunk around with words”. For those who don’t know, “gobblefunk” is a word from Roald Dahl’s story about a ‘Big Friendly Giant’ which means to play with words.

Now, some of the changes may strike some people as odd. For example, Augustus Gloop, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is now described as “enormous”, rather than “fat”. And there is a debate to be had about such rewriting of stories, with a number of different and interesting angles such as the vitally important right to free speech, and a publisher's right to make business decisions to sell their books and creative ones to keep good stories alive.

However, this is, we suggest, an issue that should not concern someone with all the weighty responsibilities involved in running an entire country in these particularly troubled times. There are others who can lead the debate.

If this becomes a Prime Ministerial preoccupation, voters may begin to suspect Sunak is just gobblefunking around in Downing Street.