Alastair was convicted by the Twitter mob

To tweet or not to tweet? That is the question. And Alastair Stewart will be kicking himself for the rest of his life for his misjudged answer.

Alastair, the nation’s longestserving male newsreader, stepped down from his ITV role this week after tweeting a Shakespeare quote during a row over the Royal Family.

The quote to follower Martin Shapland contained the words “angry ape”, which was enough to spark the kind of Twitter pile-on which has become depressingly familiar.

In a matter of seconds, Alastair Stewart OBE went from talented journalist and broadcaster with more than 40 years of experience to being a racist because the social media mob said so.

Alastair apologised for any harm he caused with the ape line from the play Measure For Measure, admitting it was “a misjudgment I regret” and Martin himself was gracious enough to accept the apology.

In a more civilised time that could – and should – have been an end to the matter.

But not in the age of Twitter – where you share views on parenting, religion, race and politics at your peril.

The place is a bear pit, with no end of users happy to poke the bear and twist their meaning. And even the

BARD JUDGEMENT Newsman Alastair smartest people will rise to the bait. I have worked with Alastair and, while I would say he was foolish to get into a Twitter scuffle with a member of the public, I know the man is not a racist.

I find it appalling that people are calling out racism in situations where if you took a step back and breathed you could sensibly conclude there was no race agenda.

Instead, people are lobbing in comments and hashtags, stirring things up, publicly shaming innocent people.

In the weird world of the internet echo chamber this is called “cancel culture”, where one misstep can be the end of you as millions of saddos decide to smash your hardearned reputation. What these empty vessels need to realise is that, by silencing opinions they don’t agree with, they make a mockery of the idea of diversity, which they seem to hold so dear.

And on the other side, being called a racist when you are not one is devastating.

It can bring about the real danger of making people too afraid to confront serious issues if they involve ethnic minorities – like the Asian grooming gang scandal.

Not everything has a racial dimension. Yet we have reached this miserable place where a careless phrase or honest mistake can lead to a fallout of Chernobyl proportions with ITV forced to choose the nuclear option.

The Twitter police may feel like they are making the world a better place, but their fauxoutrage will only divide us further.

Stewart was silly in Twitter spat, not racist