In the United Kingdom, chinky is an offensive slang word for a Chinese takeaway restaurant or Chinese food. However, along with 'chink', they are named among TV's most offensive words. In the 20th century, the word 'chink' was a term used by many white North Americans to exclude and mock the facial appearance of Chinese migrants. After several campaigns by the Scottish Executive, more people in Scotland now acknowledge that this name is indirectly racist. However, the Broadcasting Standards Commission held in 2002, after a complaint about the BBC One programme The Vicar of Dibley, that when used as the name of a type of restaurant or meal, rather than as an adjective applied to a person or group of people, the word still carries extreme racist connotation which causes offence particularly to those of East Asian origin. In a document commissioned by Ofcom titled "Language and Sexual Imagery in Broadcasting: A Contextual Investigation" their definition of chink was " a term of racial offence/abuse. However, this is polarising. Older and mainly white groups tend to think this is not usually used in an abusive way—e.g., let's go to the Chinky—which is not seen as offensive by those who aren't of East Asian origin; however, younger people, East Asians, particularly people of Chinese racial background and other non-white ethnic minorities feel the word 'Cinky, Chinkies or Chinkie' to be as insulting as 'paki' or 'nigger'." However, a year earlier, the commission's counterpart, the Radio Authority, apologised for the offence caused by an incident where a DJ on Heart 106.2 used the term. Ofcom, the successor organisation of the two, classifies it as a derivative of the racist term "chink" but notes that the degree to which the term is deemed offensive varies according to age or ethnic origin of the listener. The term gained renewed attention in 2014 after it a recording emerged of UKIP candidate Kerry Smith referring to a woman of Chinese background as a "chinky bird".
