This is where we are in Britain today: a person of colour 'cancelled'... for sympathising with a person of colour

RECENTLY I found out that remarks I had made about the Duchess of Sussex were the subject of debate on talk radio. I had pointed out to Piers Morgan, who finds it hard to leave the topic alone, that Meghan had to "learn" what it was like to be black in our society. She herself claimed that she had never been treated as a black person before coming to the UK. Her own mother said in a documentary that she regretted never having talked to Meghan about race. The discussion branded me a racist - yet the programme's producers didn't invite me to explain my views.

- Sir Trevor Phillips

This is where we have come to: when a person of colour finds themselves, in effect, cancelled for being sympathetic to another person of colour. Of course, we all know someone who, if we had the power to wave a magic wand, we'd happily mute forever. Your target could be a politician or a journalist like Piers Morgan or heaven forfend - you may even want Trevor Phillips to cease pontificating on the telly.

If it's the latter, sadly, you won't get your wish. I started a new Sunday morning political interview show on Sky News last weekend - sorry about that. Still, in a liberal democracy, freedom of expression means freedom for everyone irrespective of their race, sex, or wealth-to irritate, bore, offend and scandalise their fellow citizens. You, in turn have every right to shout at the telly or even turn it off. That's the privilege of living in a democracy. My freedom to express myself goes hand in hand with your freedom to tell me and the rest of the world that I'm an idiot.