IN A RATHER embarrassing blunder North Wiltshire MP James Gray was caught out suggesting a bomb be sent to the office of the Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds this week.

“Does anybody know where Anneliese Dodds’ Commons office is based? I need to deliver something to her office,” fellow Tory MP Robert Largan wrote.

Mr Gray replied: “A bomb, perhaps?”

Naturally, he has apologised for the “foolish remark" and said he meant “no offence,” when Mr Largan publically called him out.

No doubt that is true. The private comment was made to a fellow Tory, who he must have mistakenly assumed would laugh along at the joke about their shared opposition.

Presumably, he also had not considered the circumstantial link to the fatal bombing targeting Margaret Thatcher in 1984.

Some may then excuse the comment as ‘just a joke’ and think a ‘big fuss’ is being made by a ‘snowflake’ generation. 

But whether serious in intent, words have real meaning. It is not amusing for those serving in public roles, particularly women, who have faced a tangible fear of violence.

Have we forgotten so soon the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox at the hands of an extreme rightwing terrorist in 2016?

The most loathsome of society, would take such ‘jokes’ as support for their violence.

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Elected officials should know better - especially one as experienced as Mr Gray, who has been in post since 1997.

Perhaps in the same position, many might have chosen to call out the inappropriate nature of his comment in the same private medium, rather than risk looking like they were politically point-scoring.

Although it is unlikely Mr Gray would have felt the lesson so strongly without the public shame.

So we can only hope he has learnt the hard way - and he will now not only refrain from making such irresponsible comments, but he will not simply laugh along when others do either.