Stop pussyfooting about race

A drunken woman fights with a police officer and he restrains her. Today, the officer has been suspended pending a civil claim for damages by the woman.

Meanwhile, a Conservative front-bencher who served in the Army for 25 years condemns "lazy and useless soldiers" who use dubious excuses for their failings.

The MP is promptly sacked as homeland-security spokesman.

Has the world gone mad? Are police no longer entitled to defend themselves against vicious, drunken criminals? Are Members of Parliament no longer expected to bring their unique life experiences and robust opinions to the job?

Sadly, that is the way it seems - but only when race is involved.

Does anyone seriously believe that Pc Anthony Mulhall's tussle on CCTV would have become a national issue if his assailant had not been black?

Would Patrick Mercer have been instantly sacked by David Cameron if he had not been talking about ethnic-minority soldiers? Of course not.

So what is it about race? Why is this single issue turning us into a nation of pussyfooting wimps, fearful of expressing any opinion for fear of the consequences?

Of course, blind bigotry and incitements to violence must be outlawed. But we do no-one any favours by turning any section of society into a protected species or banning free speech.

The British Army is a model of equality. Soldiers are promoted on merit. In the armed forces thousands of ethnic-minority NCOs and officers enjoy status they might never have found in civvy street.

But if a minority of black and Asian soldiers are happier playing the race card than soldiering, why should an officer not be able to discuss it?

Or was he simply the wrong sort of officer? And here's the rub. If Patrick Mercer had been a black officer expressing the same views, would David Cameron have instantly sacked him? We doubt it.

Today we see two examples of political correctness getting in the way of common sense.

Such nonsense contributes nothing to good race relations. It merely makes our leaders look silly.

Campaign could hit the bullseye

Bring back darts! The campaign to restore the game to Britain's pubs deserves everyone's support.

Darts inspires team spirit. It develops co-ordination. It turns GCSE maths failures into experts at mental arithmetic who can add up a score and subtract 127 from 301 faster than any pocket calculator.

Why has the game fallen on hard times? Possibly because pubs need the space for meals or fruit machines.

But what does this nation need most - a brilliant training aid for budding mathematicians, or another portion of chips? No contest.