Away in a manger, no crib for a bed/The little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head/The birds in the bright skies, looked down where he lay/At the Sick Kids in Edinburgh, they had turned him away.

No, I know it is hard for most of you to believe, but the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in the Scottish capital has banned a CD of Christmas music because it mentions Jesus by name. More than 150 copies of the disc were donated to the hospital to raise the spirits of children receiving treatment over the festive period.

But managers refused to pass on the gift because they insisted it could offend those who were not of a Christian faith. The fact that this disc has been made in order to raise money for Marie Curie cancer care cut no ice

at all with the administrators. ''We couldn't just hand out this CD to anyone, but if people

go to a carol service they

could pick one up there,'' a spokeswoman declared. How jolly decent of her to point

that out.

Yet, listen to my old friend Bashir Maan, a prominent Muslim leader with whom I have spent many a happy hour on the golf course. ''This is political correctness gone mad - it is going too far and it will be counter-productive.

''The overwhelming majority of the people in this country are Christians. If they want to celebrate they should have the right, as should minority groups.''

There speaks a former councillor who more than once

hosted lavish civic dinners at Glasgow City Chambers and did not eat or drink anything because it was Ramadan. I know who I would rather listen to.

Edinburgh is not having the best of Christmases. The official city council card originally bore the inscription ''Seasons greeting'', rather underlining our reputation for being economical with the hospitality.

Then, just up the road, our brothers and sisters in the Scottish Parliament produced a card in which the words ''Merry Christmas and Happy New Year'', were not there at all. Such greetings, it was said, were not ''socially inclusive''.

Yet one MSP sent us a card which bore both the offending salutations. Our own, always enterprising, James Douglas-Hamilton simply used the one which was prepared for last year. Maybe we have not gone as far as the English authority that banned adverts for carol services in their libraries, but Christmas is becoming ever more secular and I have to say that is disappointing.

For while not being a regular attender at any church, I still enjoy the traditional events of this period; the nativity plays, the lighting of the trees, the efforts by many organisations to ensure that children at the less fortunate end of the scale are not forgotten. Can any of these activities really be offensive to those of other faiths, or none, provided they are given opportunities to celebrate in their own fashion? I shall certainly be a willing participant, as usual, in the Chinese new year celebrations and on my sideboard is a card from the Pakistani Association.

Yesterday, at a civic lunch, we entertained Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien to congratulate him on his appointment. The lord provost pointed out that this was not just an honour for him and the Catholic church in Scotland, but has been warmly welcomed by the vast majority of the citizens of the capital.

In his reply, the cardinal said he believed that him being given the red hat had created something of a record. Both he, and the late Cardinal Gray, both attended Holy Cross Academy, a local authority school. Was there any other educational establishment in the UK, I wondered, which could surpass that achievement?

If we are going to go down the political-correctness road, and I am afraid governments at both UK and Scottish level have been guilty of pandering to this lobby, it will presumably be deemed wrong for public bodies to entertain religious figures because their doctrine could be seen to be divisive. That would rule out people like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II or the Rev Billy Graham, all of whom I am fortunate enough to have met.

The humanist Martin Willett put it well: ''We need to understand our shared humanity. That is the true message of this season of hope. We could do it anytime, but December 25 is traditional.

''As an atheist I have no trouble in celebrating Christmas. Peace, goodwill to all men, is not a monopoly Christian sentiment. I have no more problem with Christmas than I do with Wednesdays.''

Christmas is a wonderful time of year, far superior to new year in my opinion. To deny children, particularly sick ones, the right to participate in any of the fun or magic of the occasion is perverse.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask you to stay/Close by me forever and love me I pray/Bless all the dear children, in thy tender care/And fit us for heaven, to live with Thee there.

The hospital managers' decision is just ludicrous and will offend more people than it will please. The truth is you can't take Christ out of Christmas.

Brian Meek is a

Conservative member of Edinburgh City Council.