RECANT,

apologise, resign, begone! Such is the modern imprecation for broadcasters or commentators who displease the great ignorati, whether by injudicious choice of words or by expressing a viewpoint that does not coalesce with the precise bevel of their own liberal mindset.

It was poor John Humphrys’s turn yesterday, when — after discussing the Manchester bomb — the veteran presenter of Radio 4’ s today programme asked Ukip leader Paul nuttall if his party’s election campaign was a ‘suicide mission’.

Unfortunate phrasing, yes. Did he mean it? no. Yet soon there were calls for him to be sacked for his ‘crass’ words, which were ‘a disgrace’ and he must ‘apologise or go’. the millions who listen every morning know that Humphrys is a man of compassion and good sense — the last person to joke or sneer at the death of innocents.

two days earlier on the same programme, I was far more offended by chief correspondent Matthew Price wandering around Manchester like a damp hankie, emoting over instead of reporting on the tragedy.

He appeared to be astonished at how ‘recently this happened’ — but that is the nature of news, darling. More annoyingly, he was repeatedly worried that it would take a ‘very, very long time for people to process what happened last night’.

Humphrys would have stuck to the facts.