You're right Houllebecque. You've never been suspended. You must have run close if I thought it had happened. My apologies for a false accusation.

Graham: <"Hi Houllebecq, I know you know about pushing the boundaries...">

I disagree. Houellebecq is about as radical as my Nana in a frenzy of crochet.

Benk: <"It is the self-serving nature of what many women attempt to pass off as feminism that repulses me. She is claiming the right to say anything, no matter how repulsive, to prove that women have a right to have an opinion.">

I agree Benk. On the other hand as people increasingly fling their opinions about (a good thing that they can nowdays) we are going to discover that insensitive a/holes come in both sexes. Being a feminist is not a necessary component.

I don't know much about Catherine Deveney so I've taken the trouble to have a bit of a browse. Her writing seems to evoke extremes of opinion - love it or loathe it. I found it a bit tedious and not often amusing, though some people claim that her wit is amazing.

She said something about being taken out of context so, much as I despise Twitter and similar sites, I went and had a look at the context. The comments weren't much improved by the context. If there was some tricky social commentary in the remark about the child, I didn't get it. I haven't seen any similar attempt to explain the comment about kd lang. That was just brutal and damned nasty. While some may claim that some people just don't "get her"; I would say that the world is not obliged to "get" any of us.

As an experienced writer one would expect her to be able to convey meaning. I just wondered if she wasn't having a hefty tipple while tweeting. I can't see any other rational explanation.