There has been a lot of fuss and controversy over the recent (actually, make that all!) proclamations of Donald Trump who seems bent on filling the world’s television screens and newspaper front pages with his vitriol. If the old saying about any publicity being good publicity is true then he’s doing a great job.

This, of course, is just what he wants and whilst a lot of what he says is risible, racist comments, misogynistic views and the like, why do people rise to the bait? The same thing has happened over the new heavyweight boxing champion of the world, the improbably named Tyson Fury, the so-called King of the Gypsies, a title unlikely to conjure up visions of sensitivity and gentleness!

Among his verbal gems Fury has bitterly denounced homosexuality and stated that “a woman’s place is in the kitchen or on her back”. Sports stars have lined up to rebuke him (with one even threatening to pull out of an awards ceremony if Fury was there) and users of social media have signed condemnatory petitions in droves.

Why? Why give these clowns credibility by taking their comments seriously? Isn’t it better instead to deal with them the way a teacher deals with the naughty little boy seeking to draw attention to himself from the back of the class? Isn’t it better to just ignore them and deprive them of the attention they so desperately crave?

I think so. Better to patronise them and insult them with subtlety. “There, there sonny, what’s the matter? Come and sit down, have a nice cup of tea and tell us all about it”.

That would really annoy them. We mustn’t take them seriously and more importantly we mustn’t take ourselves so seriously either. One of the greatest attributes of the English (and most British, in fact) is our ability to laugh and take the p*** out of people who irritate us. It would be such a shame if we lost that ability.