We've had political correctness gone mad....now it's "obsession with multi-culturalism"

We've had "political correctness gone mad". Now the Daily Mail is putting a similar cliche into the English Language: "the obsession with multi-culturalism".

Oh dear. "Multi-culturalism" is another one of those code phrases. It means 29 different things to different people and to a large number it means "too many foreigners". Just like the word "immigration".

To be fair to the Mail (crikey, pinch, pinch - I never thought I'd write that) they are reporting a report by the Royal United Services Institute which concludes that Britain's "misplaced deference to multiculturalism" was undermining the fight against extremists.

I agree with Bob Ainsworth, defence minister:

"There's a lot of nonsense talked about deference to multiculturalism. Who is deferring to multiculturalism?" he asked on the BBC's World at One. "Who in our society objects to the basic premise that all of the people who live in our country owe allegiance to our country?"

Both the Mail and the RUSI talk about multi-culturalism as if there are a series of mad Guardian-reading professors in a laboratory somewhere dreaming it up and sustaining it.

But it just happens. People buy houses or rent dwellings in certain places. They go about the lives as they wish. And we are a tolerant society.

What is the alternative? Swearing allegiance to the flag at the start of all school days? The National Anthem to be played at the start and end of all cinema and theatre performances again, with stewards making sure everyone stands up? Breaking up communities so that people spread out a bit?