I recall the thoughts of Keith Waterhouse (1929 – 2009), the gifted Daily Mail columnist. The newspaper scribe penned his thoughts at a time when columnists were household names. Their names and indeed their words of wisdom still echo through the ages.

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Like many great men and women, Waterhouse was born into humble circumstances. Born into working-class life in a miner’s village, Waterhouse did his National Service in the RAF. His media credits included That Was the Week that Was, BBC-3, The Frost Report, Worzel Gummidge, Andy Capp and among others, Billy Liar.

Anyway, I recall him writing that in the small pit village where he spent his young years, there were, I seem to recall, 17 debating societies. The diversity of debates was impressive, to say the least. Life before the internet and dumbphones.

Some but not all were political. Due to the nature of all debates, political or otherwise, the topics in these debating halls were often the battleground of deeply felt opinions and convictions.

It seems strange to recall in our present dumbed-down world that panellists and audience debaters discussed Greek philosophy, usage of the English language, astronomy, the world of art and classical music, the great classical writers and poets and such.

Remember, those addressing the audiences and their participant audiences were mostly miners or the unemployed. Could you imagine folk today separating themselves from their seedy soaps to take part in a debate about astronomy or philosophy, communism or fascism?

Our gifted columnist and much else explained that despite sometimes heated debate between the panellists and the audience; there was always total tolerance of the other points of view. Could you imagine such happening today in our politically correct environment?  As Simon Heffer, another great columnist penned, ‘political correctness is just another way of filtering the truth’.

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The truth of the matter is that today one has to be very careful about what one says, writes or holds forth on. It seems everyone is quick to react, and even to run off for legal redress if they feel their feelings have been hurt.

We live in a world of cupcakes and snowflakes. We somehow go from day to day picking our way through a minefield of political correctness and trying hard not to post anything on Facebook. Gone are the days when parliamentarians and newspaper columnists, humourists and writers could reveal true wit.

What cupcakes today must make of even preachers remarks I can well imagine but have no wish to. I can just imagine the blood draining from their outraged faces at some of the biting remarks that flew between parliament’s legislators.

I would love to quote a few but in this puritanical day, I will keep their wit to myself. It must be said that intolerance of the opinions of others is frankly intolerable.

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