Daily Mail readers have insisted that Dressage individual gold medalist Charlotte Dujardin is renamed Charlie Gardner as her name has been deemed “too French” for a post Brexit team GB.
Echoing the move which has seen readers of the right wing red top baying for French words such as Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense to be removed from British passports, the Mail have been bombarded by emails, telephone calls and letters written in crayon demanding that the Frenchness of Ms Dujardin’s moniker is too much.
“It’s a disgrace” Daily Mail reader Daron Anderson of Dagenham told me. “Does she not understand the word democracy? This country voted to take back control and that includes team GB. We don’t want people with foreign names on our medal table. If she wants to be in team GB she should have a British name. Our grandfathers didn’t fight for this. To be fair my grandfather didnt fight at all on account of his ingrowing toenail. He made a fair whack selling nylons under the counter up the East End though. That last bit’s off the record right?”
So, as The Daily Mail sports desk breathes a collective sigh of relief that team GB boxer Muhammed Ali lost his bout last night, an online petition to change Dujardin’s name to Gardner by deed poll has so far gained five signatures. There may be more once the postal votes are counted.
