But you can say “jihad, terrorist, Buddha and Allah” with your flowers!
RETAIL GIANT Marks & Spencer has apologised after the words ‘Christ’ and ‘Jesus Christ’ were found to be blocked in online gift messages for flower orders.
Other words such as the ‘F’ word and ‘gay’ were also banned but ‘jihad’, ‘terrorist’, ‘Buddha’ and ‘Allah’ were allowed.
The revelation was made when customer Geraldine Stockford, aged 53, could not buy a £35 bouquet to send to a funeral because her gift message said the flowers were from a family in ‘Christ Church Teddington’. An M&S employee later confirmed to her on the phone that there was a blocked words issue.
Later an M&S spokesman said: “We apologise for any offence caused – it was certainly never our intention. We have revised the words included on the automatic phrase checker which is in place to prevent the use and misuse of certain words.”
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, said “all of us should be alarmed” if “Christ had become an offensive word in a Christian land.”