@nick_clegg Hi Nick

Black Country Day is about celebrating everything great about the Black Country, which is a region of England which covers the boroughs of Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Sandwell.

The Black Country is regarded as the birth places of the industrial revolution and one of the only places that has retained the earliest for of English.

The reason I have contacted you today is because of the censorship on Facebook of the word ‘faggot(s)’.In the Black Country a ‘faggot’ is a local delicacy made from minced off-cuts and offal & herbs. All the crap bits that rich folk wouldn’t eat and the working class lived off.

In recent months I have personally received a warning from Facebook for using the word on my Black Country page and have also heard today that Facebook are threatening to shut down local history groups for using the word too.

I completely understand the conflation with the derogatory and offence term which is spelt the same but the two are not connected in anyway. The is no offence intended when we use the term ‘Faggot’ and the sentences always give context but only the word is examined by your team.

People in the Black Country are proud of the heritage which comes along with eating ‘Faggots and Pays (peas)’ it is a working-class dish which is part of our identity.

I was hoping that you could investigate this matter with urgency to ensure that Black Country history groups are not removed over a miss understanding and the people of the Black Country can continue to eat our regional dish with pride.

Av a bostin day

Steve Edwards