Glover: 'PCC was wrong on Clare Balding ruling'

Stepen Glover, in the Independent today, argues that the Press Complaints Commission was wrong to uphold Clare Balding's complaint against AA Gill and the Sunday Times for describing the BBC presenter as a "dyke on a bike".

Glover argues that Gill was "coarse and tasteless and perhaps a little cruel" but claims: "The PCC is being over-sensitive. I can understand that Ms Balding was hurt, and I am sorry that she was. But what Mr Gill wrote could not in a million years incite homophobia. Nor, because of its pointless crudity, did it damage Clare Balding. It was just childish and silly – but these are not crimes, just relatively minor lapses of taste which do not justify censuring and censoring a columnist. I hope the PCC is not turning into the Thought Police."