MY understanding of the word twit is that it means daft-stupid-idiot, in the sense of a “person given to twittering” (Collins Concise Dictionary).

The Sainsbury’s store in Heyford Hill, in promoting the DVD of the film Twelve Years a Slave, used a mannequin dressed in clothing depicted in the film.

It wasn’t real, it was a depiction. Perhaps if some boot polish had been applied it might have appeased the trivia critics. However the self-appointed, progressive guardians of what we are, and are not, allowed to see, stepped in, apparently using Twitter to harass Sainsbury into taking down this display.

In the ’60s and ’70s it was Mary Whitehouse – today it is Twitterers.

It makes you wonder if these Twitter people should get out more, see the real world, instead of wrapping themselves up in their own peculiar electronic comfort zone, oblivious of how the real world is and surrounded in an unrealistic, trivia mist.

My real annoyance is with the Sainsbury’s spokesman for bending the knee to this pathetic, critical tirade. It seems to be happening more and more.

Never mind the serious issues going on in the world, let’s concentrate on the trivial.

There is a silver lining to Sainsbury’s new, spineless public face, however – perhaps we can now have the same rapid response to the point-of-sale identification of Halal-prepared meat sold in the store. Oops, I should have been more inclusive and referred to the Sainsbury’s spokesperson, not man. Sorry about that.

ALAN LESTER, Northcourt Road, Abingdon-on-Thames

Today’s letters

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