Peter Rhodes on more hate crimes, straw-man arguments and being badgered to wear a badge

WHITEHALL is looking at proposals to extend hate crimes to cover the abuse of people based on their age or gender. Bang goes my fan mail.

THANKS for your memories of curious terms for items around the home that defied any other description. One reader's term "A whim wham for a wowser" was so close to another's "wigwam for a wowser" that I suspect there's some long-forgotten line from popular culture; a music-hall gag, perhaps? But my favourite old term for a mystery object was "a giggling pin for a laughing shaft." Bet you can't say that without smiling.

REMEMBER the row at the National Trust last summer when volunteers were "invited" to wear badges celebrating a gay-pride campaign? Some felt uncomfortable at the idea and either stayed away or were relegated to back-room jobs. For an organisation usually associated with genteel English gardens and tea on the lawn, the NT were behaving in a nasty, bullying way. When the story hit the papers and NT members started cancelling their subscriptions, the Trust backed down. So what will happen at the BBC to staff who choose not to wear "LGBT ally" badges which have been designed to show support to LGBT colleagues? We are watching.

JONATHAN Dimbleby blames the anti-social side of social media for the decline of reasoned discussion on TV and radio, declaring: "Debate generally has deteriorated in almost direct proportion to the amount of stuff that is uttered. We get more and more words and fewer and fewer thoughts." Memo to JD: Get a grip, old thing. You and your brother David chair two of the BBC's flagship discussion shows, you with Any Questions (R4) and David with Question Time (BBC1). If the quality of national debate has fallen, you Brothers Dimbleby must take some of the blame.

FOR a kick-off, they should halt the growing trend of "straw man" arguments when someone misquotes an earlier speaker to refute a claim that was never made in the first place. It happened recently on Question Time when a man in the audience asserted that "the UK is one of the least racist societies across Europe." He was promptly denounced by a Muslim woman as "a white man saying that there's no racism in this country." He had said no such thing but Dimbleby didn't point it out and the audience erupted with mob-like applause.

WE hacks get the straw-man treatment all the time. Not long ago, on the subject of privatising the railways, an emailer accused me: "Bet you supported it at the time, Mr Rhodes, so an apology is in order." As far as I can recall I never wrote about rail privatisation, let alone supported it (although I was resolutely against water privatisation). No matter. In today's anti-social media world, you can be pilloried not only for what you said but for what some jerk thinks you might have said.

INCIDENTALLY, the term "jerk" may be a hate crime against jerks. Guilty as charged.