...the same spinal integrity as a sea anemone

Jeremy Clarkson, once of the BBC, has a superb piece in The Sunday Times in defence of “us oldies” headlined Don’t cancel us oldies just yet. We’re trying harder than anyone to do the right thing.

His starting point is Len Goodman appearing on the BBC's Platinum Jubilee coverage and saying how much he loves coronation chicken but didn't eat it when he was younger because his gran considered curry powder to be “foreign muck” - as, indeed, did mine. An inevitable eruption of foolish activists immediately ensued...:

Everyone with spots and hormonal issues ran around waving their pierced arms in the air and gnashing their tattooed teeth, saying that this colonial and racist attitude is exactly what’s wrong with privileged white men today.

.,,despite the moral of Len's story surely being that Len had learned and changed: 

So Len doesn’t need to be criticised for saying how things used to be. He needs to be praised for having the wit and the strength of character to change his way.

And what of the BBC's role in this foolishness?

...Because it has the same spinal integrity as a sea anemone, the BBC instructed Clare Balding to issue an on-air apology for the “offence”.

That's a particularly fine turn of phrase.