THE most flabbergasting story of the week was the resignation of Pat Bottrill, chairman of the Royal College of Nursing's governing council, for making a remark about "ten little niggers".

There was no reason at all for her to resign. What did she do that was wrong? Nothing. She was at a rather fraught council meeting when delegates were beginning to leave the room. Some were going on coffee breaks and others were on their way home. Mrs Bottrill said: "If any more council members leave, it's going to be like Ten Little Niggers."

A spokesman for the Royal College of Nursing explained: "Obviously the remark caused offence and people were shocked." Oh, obviously they were shocked! Politically correct obsessives are always on the look-out for a reason to be shocked. But there was nothing more shocking about Mrs Bottrill's remark than if she had said: "It looks like rain."

If she had come into a room where some black people were sitting and greeted them with the words, "So, it's ten little niggers, is it?" - that would have been offensive. But she didn't do that. She merely made a mild joke. Seeing the delegates drifting off one by one, she simply quoted the title of the Agatha Christie story Ten Little Niggers, in which characters are murdered one at a time. She didn't call anyone a nigger.

When Christie's story was made into a very successful film in 1966 with Wilfred Hyde White, Dennis Price and Shirley Eaton, the craven squeamishness of the producers made them alter the title to Ten Little Indians. I suppose if the film were to be remade today, it would have to be called Ten Little Native Americans. But there would surely be some oversensitive types who would object that this title is offensive to small people.

Behind the palpable insanity of this event, there is a more serious issue threatening public liberty and free speech. Any politically-motivated commissar who says that we may not use the words ten little niggers, is in fact saying that it is illegal for anyone to quote book titles of which he disapproves. This is censorship. Worse, if I may no longer refer to Ten Little Niggers, then effectually part of Agatha Christie's work has been treated as if it did not exist.

It is but a short step from this to the author herself becoming regarded as a non-person - which is exactly the sort of thing that used to happen every day in the Soviet Union. Political correctness is the left-wing's attempt to achieve by bureaucratic prescription the absolute control communists failed to achieve by revolution, propaganda and the sponsorship of guerrilla wars.

What sort of bigots run the Royal College of Nursing these days? A senior executive, Dr Beverly Malone, said: "Pat has made a personal sacrifice for the good of the RCN. The decision confirms that the RCN collectively is committed to tackling institutional discrimination in all its forms." Bring me a bed-pan, please, nurse.

*Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael's, Cornhill, in the City of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange