The mighty forces of political correctness are in motion

The columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown suggested on radio that David Cameron and most British politicians were not morally qualified to speak about human-rights abuse, writes Peter Rhodes.

In response, an exasperated Conservative councillor in Birmingham, Gareth Compton, tweeted his mates: "Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death. I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really."

Mere words cannot convey what a huge non-event this is. If you are a columnist and do not get occasional threats of death or dismemberment, you are not doing the job properly.

My latest was an email in which a chap promised to visit the office with "a thought to ripping Mr Rhodes's tripes out."

This is part of the boisterous cut and thrust of debate you expect in an open society. And yet Ms Alibhai-Brown has got it into her head that this tweet, by a named and identifiable Tory councillor, was a serious incitement to murder her.

"I was just incredibly upset," she said. "He was specifically asking that I should be stoned because he didn't agree with a view I expressed."

Oh, please. But even as we gasp at the sheer blithering stupidity of it all, a member of the public complains to the police about the tweet and Councillor Compton is arrested and bailed. He explains that his words were "an ill-conceived attempt at humour". Too late. The mighty forces of political correctness are in motion and God knows where this nonsense will end. Sometimes, I simply do not recognise this country.