Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd is “mortified” at having accidentally used the word “coloured” to describe the black MP Diane Abbott.

Mortified at my clumsy language and sorry to @HackneyAbbott. My point stands: that no one should suffer abuse because of their race or gender. — Amber Rudd MP (@AmberRuddHR) March 7, 2019

Silly woman. What on earth is Rudd doing giving succour to the race-baiting mob which knows full well that she had no intention of being disrespectful, let alone racist, and which is merely exploiting this incident as a cynical power play?

Here is one of those race-baiters in action:

You might forgive your grandma for saying it, but cabinet Ministers in 2019 should know better than this. Using the term "coloured" to describe anyone who is not white is offensive because it assumes being white is somehow normal or the default.

https://t.co/xL2vVYVKQq — David Lammy (@DavidLammy) March 7, 2019

And here is another:

The term "coloured", is an outdated, offensive and revealing choice of words. — Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) March 7, 2019

Before we go on, let’s just examine the context of Rudd’s ‘crime’. She was on the BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine show and was asked if Twitter abuse was worse for female politicians.

Here is what Rudd said:

‘It definitely is worse if you’re a woman. And it’s worst of all if you’re a coloured woman. I know that Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse, and I think that’s something we need to continue to call out.’

Two things are immediately clear from the context.

First, Rudd evidently had no intention of slighting Diane Abbott in any way. On the contrary, she was trying to signal sympathy for – even solidarity with – her friend from the Opposition benches.

Second, Rudd was engaged in a flagrant exercise of conspicuous virtue-signalling. She was, indeed, getting about as close as a white person can to playing the race card. That is, she was buying heavily into the narrative that MPs like Diane Abbott get given an especially hard time because of their skin colour.

But we shouldn’t feel sorry for Rudd. Not in the slightest.

What she was obviously trying to do was to curry favour with what Laura Perrins calls the ‘Woke-stapo’ – and instead offering herself up as a cheap propaganda sacrifice for the all-devouring radical left.

Yup, life sure does come at you fast if you are a wet, limp, please-everyone-love-me Tory MP. It really was a simple job though: complain about the abuse women in public life receive, especially black women, and then move on. Then they’ll all love you, Amber, and make you head girl. I’m not a fan of Rudd; those girls were irritating in school and they are irritating now so this latest gaffe has served up some delicious schadenfreude. I doubt if Rudd will learn the key lesson in all of this however: the Left hate you. You, Amber Rudd, are a Tory and no matter how much you try to suck up to them, no matter how much you try to out-Woke them and play the identity politics game, they will still hate you.

Let’s be clear. Diane Abbott and David Lammy are two of the very worst MPs in the House of Commons. Their awfulness has nothing whatsoever to do with their skin colour and everything to do with the fact that they are incredibly thick and unbelievably useless. [And, no, the fact that one of them got into Cambridge and the other into Harvard tells us little, I fear, about their ability…]

To distract from their incredible thickness and unbelievable uselessness, both resort to the only effective weapon they have in their armoury: racial victimhood.

Both Abbott and Lammy are forever banging on about the race issue, despite the fact that they live in a country where pretty much everyone is comfortable living in a multiracial society.

Rudd’s comments on the Jeremy Vine Show are sadly symptomatic of just how depressingly wet the Conservative party has become.

The Conservative position on race-baiting identity politics ought to be a no-brainer: this is not a game we play.

It’s not a game we should play because, far from healing the racial divide, it actually widens it. It’s an ugly tactic, not an expression of genuine hurt.

Race-baiters create a climate where everyone has to walk on eggshells regarding the latest correct terminology. They love it when you slip because then they can pounce. https://t.co/iPidti7lEF — James Delingpole (@JamesDelingpole) March 7, 2019

Again, it’s perfectly clear from the context of Rudd’s “coloured” remark that she meant no harm.

And anyone sensible, of whatever ethnic background, knows this:

Honestly, even I can't keep up with the least offensive ways to refer to my own skin colour. To me what matters is your intent, and if you weren't trying to cause offence, you're not a racist. — Soutiam Goodarzi (@Soutiam21) March 7, 2019

Rudd should never have tried sucking up to the ghastly Abbott by endorsing her cry-bully tactics of fake victimhood: people hate on Abbott on Twitter not because she’s black but because she’s thick as mince and quite incredibly irritating.

And Rudd should never have apologised for causing offence when no offence was intended. That way madness lies.