Last updated at 14:19, Monday, 19 September 2011

The days when left-handed children were beaten and forced to use their right hand are long gone.

Aren’t they?

Reiver asks the question in response to news that Bells of Lazonby has created 20 jobs to fulfil an order with Costa Coffee for 33,000 cakes a day.

Delights including rocky road, lemon cupcakes and carrot cake are being produced at the firm’s Lazonby HQ, near Penrith.

Good news for Cumbria, although perhaps not so good for the roughly 12 per cent of the population who are left-handed.

Such are the exacting demands of Costa that only right-handed staff are allowed to ice the cupcakes. Left-handed bakers are apparently unable to provide the necessary ‘flick’ to the frosting.

Reiver senses a compensation claim in the offing from a disgruntled left-hander unhappy at being kept away from the cupcake icer.

Discrimination against southpaws may not be specifically outlawed, but this policy seems far from the spirit of equality legislation.

Left-handers used to be known as sinistrists, from the word ‘sinister’.

Some lefties might wonder if we aren’t going back to the bad old days.

First published at 11:29, Monday, 19 September 2011
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk