I DON’T know whether to laugh or cry at the recent episode involving Tory MP Anne Marie Morris. Laugh because it’s so insane she thought it was OK to use the N-word or cry because one of our elected politicians thinks it’s OK to use the N-word.

Decent human beings started pointing out that it was offensive in the early 1900s — that’s quite a long time ago now. You’d think she might have caught on.

And she’s not the first to come out with such offensive crassness.

Why do they do it?

I can’t help wondering if it’s a perverse form of self-sabotage. A bit like when you’re teenagers and the boy doesn’t want to go out with the girl any more and rather than breaking it off he starts behaving horribly so eventually she gets fed up and dumps him.

Perhaps Ms Morris was sick of being a Tory MP and rather than resign she decided to blurt out a wholly unforgivable phrase which would leave her out of a job.

Except it hasn’t, of course, she has merely been suspended from the Party. Which is offensive in itself.