IT sounds like a sick joke. Schools and playgroups may now buy politically correct dolls including a deaf ballerina who wears a hearing aid, a one-legged ski-instructor and a blind man with a white stick. But Labour-run Derby City Council are taking this very seriously indeed. They Council has allocated £500 to a playgroup whose leaders fear that unless they have the dolls, children in their care will grow up "unbalanced".

These worthy people seem to have forgotten that children don't really think that play is real life. Generations of children have played with teddy bears without expecting to meet one on every corner. It is difficult to imagine how playing with a "disabled" doll will make them understand the real problems associated with disabilities.

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