These days I often find myself wondering if I’m one of the few remaining people who doesn’t take offence. I’ll write about about global warming being real or taxation or how you should tip and commentators and tweeters will tell me I’m a shill for Big Science or a deluded communist or part of the great serving staff conspiracy. They’ll call me a posh idiot, a prejudiced retard and an EU-loving-socialist, but it’s a free country and it’s their right to do so. I can dish it out and I can take it.

I was thinking this as I read about the offence that Iain Lee, the BBC radio presenter, has caused. Lee was interviewing Libby Powell, a lawyer from Christian Concern on Three Counties Radio. She was defending a prison gardener who claimed he had been persecuted for telling prisoners to ‘repent’ for their homosexuality. Powell said, “His message was one of repentance from sin and as part of the verses he read, he did mention homosexuality as well as a host of other sins.”

Lee responded: “Homophobia is bigotry. Do you support bigotry?”

Powell replied: “This isn’t homophobia, this is God’s word.” Lee then told her she didn’t understand what bigotry was and accused her of being a bigot. It’s unclear whether he has actually been sacked or not, but he won’t be returning to the show.

Sorry for any offensive my interview may have caused. I think this article says all that needs to be said. https://t.co/lT1L1RZQMF — Iain Lee (@iainlee) November 12, 2015

Way back in 2010, I might have been surprised that anyone should lose their job over something so mind-numbingly trivial. But now, I just think, “Not again.” Our culture of taking offence has become ridiculous. The offence news cycle has started to feel a bit like EastEnders: there’s always something new and it’s always the same. Honestly, if you’re going to defend someone who says gays are sinners on air, you should be prepared to be called out for bigotry. And that’s the end of it.

All this reminded me of the famous 1968 TV exchange between Gore Vidal and William Buckley, where the latter said, “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamm face, and you’ll stay plastered.” Vidal and Buckley hated each other but Vidal certainly didn’t take offence. On the contrary, if you watch the footage, you can see his mischievous smile - he loved the cut and thrust of debate and making Buckley lose his rag was exactly what he wanted.

What would happen now? Well, Buckley would have to apologise and rightly so. But you’d also have untold thousands of people taking offence on Vidal’s behalf, even though he clearly relished every second of it. You’d see people people raging on Twitter. Then you’d probably have a crypto-Nazi taking offence. Then you’d have activists wade into the debate, claiming to be offended on behalf of queer crypto-Nazis. These days, no offence is too niche.

There’s been a lot of talk of our current culture of offence and shaming and safe-spaces being PC2.0 and there is something to this. But when I think about how extreme and hair trigger things are now, I look back on PC1.0, the political correctness of my university days, with a kind of dreamy nostalgia. Back then it was more about making crap blokes show some decency and respect to other human beings: treating women as equals, referring to other nationalities by their correct names and not using words like spastic. Really, it was pretty hard to argue with.

However, while many of its tenets were hard to argue with, PC1.0 was fine if you did want an argument. In fact, many of the feminists I knew at university liked nothing better. They certainly didn’t take offence – rather they delighted in tripping you up in your sexist inconsistencies and contradictions and, like Vidal, loved making you lose your rag and look a fool. Afterwards, you’d still be friends with them and you’d all head down to the student bar to drink as much subsidised lager as you possibly could, because one of the other pillars of 90s-style equality was that both sexes thought nothing of putting away seven pints of Stella on a school night.

"The Offence Police remind me of a wishy washy version of the Stasi" Alex Proud

To me this felt like universities as they should be. A kind of intellectual rough and tumble where all ideas were aired and the rubbish ones were discarded – because they were crap, not because anyone felt personally upset. Nobody would dare suggest your couldn’t have your say. In fact, they quite liked letting you have your say in order to watch you make an idiot of yourself.

Not these days. Recently, we saw students at Cardiff University trying to no-platform Germaine Greer because she holds controversial views on transsexuals. She wasn’t there to discuss transsexuals (and, while I don’t agree with her view on transsexuals, I can still “see” where’s she’s coming from) but no matter. Thank God, she has a thick skin and spoke anyway. Because Cardiff is a university in the UK, not a country club in the United Arab Emirates.

Students called for Germaine Greer to be banned from speaking at Cardiff University Credit: Rex

Meanwhile, at my own former university, we had a huge brouhaha over whether International Men’s Day should be officially marked. Frankly, I don’t know if I’m a supporter of IMD or not. I really haven’t thought very much about about it. Does it draw much-needed attention to male suicide rates or does it amplify existing prejudices? Honestly, I have no idea. But I don’t need to.

If some people want to celebrate IMD great and if others want to protest, that’s also great. But the one thing we shouldn’t be doing is trying to stop people observing IMD because it offends us.

Over in the US, where these things always go bigger and better and crazier, we have students at Princeton trying to remove the name of Woodrow Wilson (an alumnus) from the university. Wilson was one the great progressive American Presidents. He was anti-trust and a champion of labour. But he also had pro-segregation views which we now abhor, although they were common at the time. Like most people, he wasn’t all good and he wasn’t all bad. Life is full of complexity and nuance.

To me, this feels like a very dangerous road to go down. What about Elizabeth I? She was big fan of capital punishment and not too keen on the Moors. Shall we delete all references to her? What about that Churchill? Amongst all the bon mots he had some pretty dodgy views on Indians. Does that mean he shouldn’t be celebrated for standing up to Hitler (who was, after all, a vegetarian)?

Winston Churchill offends war lovers with his peace sign Credit: Getty

When you do this sort of thing, you’re imposing today’s standards on the past and revising history in a way that Stalin would have approved. There is nobody alive under the age of 90 who has any idea what Wilson’s world was like, because he died in 1924. He grew up in the South during the Civil War and its aftermath. How can you possibly judge his actions in any meaningful way?

Back to the present day and even when the offensive person is alive and well, we’ve lost any sense of proportionality. Recently Ken Livingstone said, “you need psychiatric help” to a person who had needed it. Offensive? Absolutely. Should Livingstone have apologised? Yup. Should it have been national news? Absolutely not. It’s just not that important.

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Of course none of this matters to the Offence Police. They seize on everything and it’s all black and white. They have a strong authoritarian streak. They love shutting down debate and telling people what they can and cannot say. Thanks to social media their reach is greatly expanded and they will happily take offence on behalf of anyone, regardless of whether that person was offended or not. If you have the temerity to fight back they will de-legitmise you and then they’ll throw you to the Twitter mob. They actually remind me of a wishy washy version of the Stasi. (My mum grew up in East Germany, so I feel I can say this, but please do feel free to take offence on her behalf.)

Dr. Tim Hunt Credit: AP

There is no better example of the unaccountable Offence Police than the Tim Hunt affair. An entire career destroyed over a joke. Here, Connie St Louis set herself judge, jury and executioner – and, as it turned out, was completely, utterly wrong. There are so many questions about this. Why didn’t St Louis (who is a Professor of Journalism) ask Hunt for his side? What were her motives? She hasn’t told us – and I find myself thankful that Louise Mensch keeps on asking.

The recent tragic events in Paris had me thinking, don’t the Offence Police have better things to worry about? But maybe they’re actually a small part of the problem. A lot of the issues we have today are quite closely linked to several decades of turning a blind eye to the truly dreadful parts of other cultures for fear of offending them. And beside, isn’t a culture where people are afraid of opening their mouths the sort of thing that ISIS are advocating anyway?

"You don’t have the right not to be offended" Alex Proud

So what I’m calling for is a bit more offence. Let’s toughen up and fight for the right to upset people. I know it’s hard to passionately defend moderate values. But this is really important. Stephen Fry put it brilliantly well back in 2005 when he said, “It’s now very common to hear people say, ‘I'm rather offended by that.’ As if that gives them certain rights. It’s actually nothing more...than a whine. ‘I find that offensive.’ It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. ‘I am offended by that.’ Well, so fucking what.”

So come on. You’re making me agree with Louise Mensch. You’re making me quote Stephen Fry. You’re making me defend Ken Livingston. This has got to stop, if only for my sanity. You can’t shut down points of view you don’t like. You need to stop de-legitimising your opponents, being so thin-skinned and demanding safe spaces. You have the right to say whatever you like and so do people who disagree with you. You don’t have the right not to be offended and nor do they. It’s all part of being an adult in a western democracy.

Feel free to disagree with me. Feel free to call me fat, middle-aged, ginger and middle class. I won’t be offended.