POLITICAL correctness – or ‘hypercorrectness’ – appears to have sunk to hitherto uncharted depths this year and particularly over the last few weeks.

If this exceedingly disturbing trend is not swiftly halted and gently reversed, people, in a few years’ time, will be scared, if not quite to move, to open their mouths, put pen to paper, or avail themselves of whatever the latest, cutting-edge, state-of-the-art means of communication may then be – even apparently privately, for fear that either the state or some nosey, ‘do-gooding’ little creep could be intercepting their personal messages.

Alternatively, there could be a major backlash, with the pendulum swinging inexorably in the opposite direction, not merely to the situation prevailing, in, say, the ’50s but possibly further, maybe much further.

In the not-too-distant future, even a letter such as this could be either perilous, if not impossible, to write or totally redundant and enigmatic.

What is it to be, folks?

DAVID DIMENT, Riverside Court, Oxford

Today’s letters

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