Nick Robinson versus the world

Nick Robinson came under attack last week after quoting a government source’s description of the Woolwich bombers’ appearance. Writing in tomorrow’s Spectator, Robinson recalls the storm:

‘A glance at Twitter revealed, however, that those words — despite being a quote — had outraged some who thought they revealed a prejudice that all Muslims look the same. One witty tweet asked if the man playing at Wembley in Bayern Munich’s no. 7 shirt looked Muslim. Franck Ribéry is French, he’s white and he’s Muslim.’

You might have thought that there were bigger fish to fry last week; but the easily-offended, on both sides of the aisle, busied themselves by taking offence:

‘The next day a new round of condemnation began. Why had I bowed to pressure? Why had I responded to Muslim oversensitivity?’

So, was the BBC political editor leant on? Apparently not:

‘As it happens, I had not discussed the idea of apologising with my bosses, let alone been ordered by them to do so.