IT is extraordinary how a misplaced, foolish joke can get to dominate the news for such a long time.

Boris Johnson’s now very famous column in last week’s Telegraph has provoked outrage, a huge number of column inches from both news reporters and commentators, and a vast number of interpretations of what he said.

To be clear, the general thrust of his column – that Muslim women should be allowed to where the niqab or burka irrespective of what people think of it – is something that I wholeheartedly agree with. But with his casual language, he has provoked a divided backlash.

We all make off colour jokes in private and there is not much wrong with that. Indeed, politicians are the brunt of off colour jokes in public and it is annoying for us that we can’t behave like normal people, telling the same type of jokes. But there is a good reason.

When Boris makes a joke about someone looking like a letter box, he gives license for others to use it. I am sure it was not his intention, but there are cases of people using this as a new form of insult. No politician should put themselves in a position where they present ideas to abusers and it is interesting that when Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee used the same simile, it didn’t provoke the same backlash.

But the accusations of anti-Semitism against the Labour Party and anti-Muslim against the Conservatives is something that we should listen to. Jeremy Corbyn’s stunning lack of action over anti-Semitism has even prompted his own power base – Momentum – to ask him to act. The latest row over how he could be at a memorial ceremony to Palestinian terrorists whilst not “taking part” is yet another example of his questionable thinking.

The reality is, when any organisation becomes so convinced of its own virtue, it becomes unable to critically analyse itself. IN the same way that if Muslims are telling the Conservative Party that it has anti Muslim elements in it, then with thousands of Jews, Jewish organisations, Jewish Labour MPs and now the Israeli Prime Minister telling Labour that is has an anti-sematic problem, the Labour leadership must listen.

There are only two political parties that have led the Government for the last seven decades. Those parties must govern a country with many minorities in it. If they can’t see their own prejudices – alleged or actual - how can they govern fairly for everyone?