Let’s calm down about Amber Rudd’s ‘coloured’ gaffe

If you want to see the detrimental impact political correctness has had on our society, you could do worse than examine the scandal swirling around Amber Rudd today. Rudd is being mauled for using the undoubtedly antiquated word ‘coloured’ to describe Diane Abbott. On Radio 2, she referred to Abbott as a ‘coloured woman’. Cue fury. ‘Told you the Tories were racist’, everyone is saying, to such an extent that Rudd has now issued an apology. But here’s the thing: when she used the word ‘coloured’, Rudd was speaking out against racism. She was condemning it. Does the context of people’s words, their actual meaning, count for nought now?

It seems so. Apparently it doesn’t matter that Rudd was defending Diane Abbott. She was discussing the abuse politicians receive when she said:

‘It’s worst of all if you’re a coloured woman. I know that Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse.’