This Britain, Alas

A typically swell post from Chris Dillow:

Take four recent developments: – Joey Barton provokes “fury” by saying that suicide is selfish, with some of his critics invoking the weasel work “inappropriate“. – Over 30,000 people complain to the BBC about Jeremy Clarkson’s “shoot the strikers” comment. – Luis Suarez gives Fulham fans the finger, and they faint like Victorian spinsters. – Emma West has to spend Christmas in prison, supposedly for her own safety after she gets death threats for her racist rant. These events all tell us something sad about the British people – that many of us have become illiberal prigs, quick to take offence and to condemn. 

It’s hard to dispute this. Life’s too short and grim enough as it is without all this mustering of outrage. Even on the internet. And yet shrill demands someone, somewhere must apologise for, well, just about anything are the order of the day. Civilised Tories, supposed to be mildly jaundiced when it comes to the perfectability of man, should know better than to be exercised by all this.