Did you hear the one about the shopkeeper who was slapped with a police ban on his jokes?

When a policeman called at Bob Singh's shop to offer him some advice on his jokes, he thought someone was having a laugh.



But the smile was wiped off his face when the officer told him there had been a complaint about the gags he prints on leaflets advertising his corner shop's Christmas offers.

Even though the leaflets have amused customers for more than a decade, police said they could offend people and warned the shopkeeper that he could face prosecution for a public order offence.



Bob Singh feels he has been gagged

Now Mr Singh, 36, has been forced to withdraw all his humorous leaflets advertising seasonal discounts at his Landmark store in Port Talbot, South Wales.



He said: 'I couldn't believe my ears. I thought they were joking - but they were deadly serious.



'This proves the world has gone completely crazy. Why are the police getting involved in something like this?



'The bizarre thing is that they wouldn't tell me which jokes were offensive, what was offensive or who had complained about them.



'There's no bad language in them or racism although a couple are a bit saucy - but they are not offensive.



'We've been doing this for years and I've never had a problem until now. I get the jokes off the internet.'



Mr Singh has now put a sign in the front window saying: 'We would like to apologise to anyone who may have been offended by the contents of our Christmas leaflet. In future we will try to be more politically correct.'



Shop assistant Debbie Llewellyn said: 'It is political correctness gone mad. It is incredible that somebody could be offended enough to go to the police about it.'









South Wales Police defended the officer's actions, saying that he gave 'appropriate advice' after a complaint from a member of the public who found the jokes offensive.



Sergeant Simon Merrick said: 'The content of promotional material has been brought to our attention as being potentially inflammatory and offensive.



'The distributor has been appropriately advised and instructed to withdraw the leaflets.'

Tory MP for Shipley Philip Davies, a patron of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, said: 'I just think it's absolutely mindless that police are wasting time on this kind of stuff when there are so many violent offences being carried out in the country.



'The police officer would have been better off telling the person who complained to develop a better sense of humour rather than going to call on a shopkeeper.



'The jokes may not be very good, but that's a long way from being a criminal offence.'