Let’s have a little equality in race relations issues

I can't believe for one moment that the front pages of every Indian national newspaper would be condemning the remarks. I can't believe either that the abuse would be topping the country's political agenda for days on end. In fact, I doubt that we would even hear that the incident had happened.

When, however, some pea-brained Essex girl taking part in the moronic Big Brother programme on Channel Four is accused of uttering the word "Paki" on air, all hell is let loose. The fact that the same programme repeatedly broadcasts the most foul and obscene language day in and day out doesn't seem to bother anyone. Indeed, the television company has tried to defend itself by saying Jade Goody didn't call Shilpa Shetty a Paki - she instead used a swear word starting with "c" and ending with "t" - as if this were somehow more acceptable!

Closer to home, a man appeared last week at Exeter Crown Court charged with racial harassment. He called a police surgeon a "f***ing Paki." Judge Paul Darlow - who also regularly sits at Truro Crown Court - said the decision to charge the defendant was "a nonsense" and the doctor should have let the insult "roll off his back."

The judge then gave the defendant some words of advice: "Next time, call him a fat bastard' and do not say anything about his colour."

It's not very pleasant to refer to somebody as a Paki and the term is clearly meant to offend. But, as the judge at Exeter quite rightly pointed out, should it really be regarded as any more offensive than any other form of abuse? No-one in their right mind would suggest taking someone to court for calling another person "fatso," "baldy" or "four-eyes." I doubt that even calling a French person a "frog" or a German a "kraut" would get you arrested. But if any white British person dares to call anyone with a different colour skin by any offensive word that refers to their country of origin, the forces of political correctness come down on them like a ton of bricks.

Surely it's about time that we learnt to be a little more mature about such matters? If race discrimination is to be totally abolished - as it most certainly should be - we must stop treating taunts against black people as being more serious than those against white. After all, isn't that what equality is supposed to be all about?

We must also learn to be more thick skinned. As my old mum used to say when I became upset over unkind remarks by other children: "Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you."

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Cornwall county council is wasting no time in recruiting its new "communications team" including a managing editor for a proposed new taxpayer-funded newspaper.

Advertisements have been placed by the council offering up to £48,378-a-year for a communications manager, £30,843 for the newspaper editor and £26,928 for a communications officer.

They're going to need to pay fancy salaries to find someone clever enough to explain away how the council can justify wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds a year on a newspaper while at the same time cutting front-line services because there's a shortage of cash.

They will need someone with the qualities of ace "spin doctor" Alastair Campbell to talk their way out of that one.

Perhaps there's another solution Cornwall's Liberal Democrat councillors should consider. If they didn't squander our money in the first place, they wouldn't need to employ spin doctors to defend the indefensible. They also wouldn't need to launch a Cornish version of Pravda.

It's simple, isn't it? Even the council's current ineffective press office could get some good headlines out of that: "Council axes bottled water for staff." Or "Top officers inflated salaries slashed." Or "Councillors mileage expenses halved." Or "County Hall carpet to be bought from Trago Mills."

Would they really need expensive communications staff and a council newspaper if they made sensible decisions like that?