PC brigade sobers up the drunken sailor

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The government-funded charity Bookstart changed the title character in the traditional sea shanty What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor? to a "grumpy pirate". Its newly sober version was criticised by campaigners and parents. Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: "If they want to sing a song about pirates, why don't they simply write a new one?"

Instead of lines such as "Put him in the brig until he's sober", the new version has lyrics "Do a little jig and make him smile".

At her local library in Rainham, Kent, parent Caroline Graham, 29, said: "It makes me angry that during the current climate people are being paid probably more than my husband earns to come up with stuff like this."

Katherine Soloman from Bookstart said the change was for a "pirate promotion".