Tip of an iceberg - Racism disguised as humour

The BBC could hardly have made any decision other than to fire radio presenter Danny Baker, over his social media posting of an image showing a chimpanzee dressed in clothes with the caption, “Royal Baby leaves hospital”.

The BBC could hardly have made any decision

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Even though Baker, who has made a career as a champion of lad culture, apologised and deleted the post, he could not have expected anything else.

The sincerity of that apology is undermined by his subsequent attack on the BBC, which, he contends, “literally threw me under the bus”.

His pathetic story seems just the tip of an ugly iceberg, one that is hard to ignore.

The birth of Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor provoked social media sneering that went far beyond any light-hearted mockery of Britain’s royal family.

It was nakedly, aggressively racist, nor was it confined to UK sources. Any suggestion, like Baker’s initial response, that it was just good, clean, if unthinking, fun is not credible.

How sad this is for a country that was, as many Irish emigrants have good reason to appreciate, open and welcoming.

Celebrity and ignorance are indeed a toxic mix.