Being PC in this day and age

Jeremy Clarkson, Ricky Gervais and Andy Gray have all paid the price for causing offence. But are their comments any different from the merciless banter heard on the street every day?

In 2011, political correctness finally went mad. Really mad. It got angry with Ricky Gervais for using the word "mong"; it shouted at Jeremy Clarkson for saying that strikers should be shot; it had Andy Gray and Richard Keys sacked from Sky for being sexist about female match officials; it forced Ofcom to censure Frankie Boyle for his jokes about Jordan's disabled son. Maybe mad is the wrong word. PC got hardcore.

Berating people for revealing private prejudices in public, for picking on someone less than their own size, for making out-of-order gags… PC became so central to the nation's conversation with itself that I started collecting articles. Such as: "White officers sue Met for 'racism'" (they were charged, then cleared of race-related offences, and sued the Met for compensation). Lots of pieces on how Christianity is under threat from PC, or whether a comedian's joke is "bad taste". Blogs and counter blogs about how women are represented in computer games, whether on-pitch slagging between football players should be legally monitored. Many articles linked the BBC with political correctness – the furore about the Beeb proposing to stop the use of BC and AD (overly PC); the fuss about the lack of females on the shortlist for Sports Personality of the Year (not PC enough).

Read the full Guardian article here.