Cameron engages in “golliwog” debate

This is what he had to say on offensive words in an interview with Iain Dale…

“There’s one bit of political correctness which is terribly important and that’s about politeness.

“I have a disabled son and I don’t want people to call him a spastic. You are a gay man, you don’t want someone to call you a poof. If you have a black friend, you don’t want someone to call them something offensive.

“It’s about manners and I think what we’ve got to do is frame this debate in a sense of what is good manners and politeness and what is common sense.”

Considering the Carol Thatcher incident and the sacking of Notts MP Patrick Mercer a while back, his words will have been carefully chosen here.

Notice how he says the words “poof” and “spastic”, but when it comes to race relies on “something offensive”.

I imagine as he’s speaking to a gay man and as the father of a disabled child, he feels there is a sort of ownership of those particular words.

If the interviewer had been black and not gay would he have changed the words he used? Or does he simply consider the race issue more of a hot potato?

The full interview appears in Total Politics on Wednesday