CLIVE SMITH: When did this country lose its sense of humour?

So, can someone please explain to me how dressing up as Diane Abbott and ridiculing her mathematical skills in this context meets that dictionary definition?

I’ll give you a clue...it doesn’t.

We’re talking here about the picture taken and then tweeted at the recent PDC World Darts competition of a white man dressed up as Diane Abbott.

He blacked himself up and was holding a sign displaying the number 190 (the top three-dart score being 180), an obvious nod to her dodgy grasp of maths.

Mocking a person because of their skin colour is racist, but doing the same to a black person because of something unrelated to the colour of their skin isn’t.

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, is black. Fact. For someone who could potentially wield so much power over this country, I think she seems intellectually-challenged. And she opens herself up to all the ridicule she gets.

Political satire is as old as politics itself in this country – let’s not change that now.

When did this country lose its sense of humour?

Taking the mick out of each other is something we’ve always done well in this country. And if, as we are always being told, society should be integrated, then this great tradition we have should be respected and accepted by all.

A white person dressing up as a black person would obviously require you to actually resemble a black person.

I’m a white man and would take no offence whatsoever if a black man made himself white for fancy dress.

Where was the uproar when the film White Chicks was released? The two lead characters were played by a black man who dressed up as blonde, white women. There wasn’t any. Strange that.

If you think it was in bad taste, fair enough, that is your opinion. I found it funny, as did countless others. Don’t start crying racism because it’s fashionable to do so at the moment.

The more people shout it for nonsense like this, the more it dilutes the real incidents of racism.

BRING BACK THE REAL BLACK FRIDAY

The real Black Friday was always the last Friday before Christmas, the last pay day for most people before Father Christmas arrived.

It was a day when people used to go out, get absolutely trolleyed, come home with a black eye, ripped shirt and the missus screaming that Christmas was cancelled.

This British tradition has been ruined by a host of imposters.

There’s Black Friday with people fighting over discounted TVs instead of spilt pints, Cyber Mondays and even a Giving Tuesday.

So, go forth and take this great bastion of British life back. Drink your Stellas and Jagerbombs, risk getting sacked at the office party and once again incur the wrath of Mrs Christmas.

TAKING TURKEY WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS JUST A TAD TOO FAR

Before you went to your in-laws yesterday and moaned about the dry turkey or spuds that weren’t crispy enough, just think about the poor lot who were invited round to Debra Parsons’s for Christmas Day.

You see, her mum died in May and ever since she’s been having spoonfuls of her mum’s ashes each day to help her ‘cope’. A stint with a bereavement councillor would be better.

And on Christmas Day her mum Doreen was being sprinkled on the turkey and Christmas pudding.

Is she kept up there on the spice rack between the cinnamon powder and ground cloves?

Keith Richards famously snorted his father’ ashes,

I guess that’s the New Year’s Eve party sorted then.