Most of the British public will by now be familiar with the incident where Nigella Lawson appeared to have the violent hand of her husband Charles Saatchi thrust upon her neck. With that in mind, I will resist posting the photographs again, for I think we have all seen them enough. Needless to say, the "playful tiff" that Saatchi claimed to be enjoying did not look particularly enjoyable for Ms Lawson.
Society responded by trying to interpret the photographs in order to ascertain the level of aggression by Saatchi and to propose its own sanctions. Some pondered why a photographer was happy to snap away at the sparring pair, yet nobody was prepared to step in and help. Others questioned what sort of potential violence may be going on behind closed doors.
However, the real "fun" began when the leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, was allowed loose on Twitter. He promptly attracted revulsion by adding sexism to his already extensively bursting suitcase of prejudice by making light of the situation.
He wrote: "If I had the opportunity to squeeze Nigella Lawson, her throat wouldn't be my first choice."
No great mind-reading feat is required in order to unravel what Griffin was driving at. The subject of most discussion of Ms Lawson over the years has been (in all probability) the size of her chest - as opposed to her cooking skills, her well-to-do background or even how she manages to maintain a naturally youthful appearance.
The use of Ms Lawson's body shape for the benefit of humour is probably is not in itself the biggest atrocity in human history. Britain is full of supposedly edgy comedians who love nothing more than to crack a boobs or backside joke. Some of them are even funny, and I love nothing more than a bit of dangerous comedy. I would not fit the definition of politically correct too comfortably, therefore any attempt by Griffin to characterise someone like myself as a humourless PC bore is nonsense.
The problem, however, is that the situation was inappropriate for comedy. The pictures depicted what appeared to be a woman being physically manhandled. If joking about a woman's breasts is not necessarily crossing the line of decency, then joking about the right place to grab an alleged brutalised woman is. The potential of domestic violence is not a suitable platform for a gag.
Whatever I may think of Griffin, he is supposed to be the figurehead of a legitimate political party. Could you imagine David Cameron, Ed Miliband or Nick Clegg thinking it acceptable to go on to Twitter and joke about where best to get hold of Nigella so soon after those photographs appeared?
The simple truth is that there is a time and a place to try and beat Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr in the extreme comedy stakes, and joking about Nigella Lawson on Twitter today was not it.
