ONE of the things I hate most about social media is someone trotting out a nasty, outrageous, unpleasant, or hateful statement followed by #justsaying.

And then there's the idea that anything can be said, any statement no matter how offensive or ridiculous, and no one should bristle because it's all just "banter".

Even politicians are doing it these days.

Well, the general secretary of Ukip, Matthew Richardson, to be exact.

Richardson reportedly told a meeting last month: “I’ve said before, people talk about Ukip being bigots. There are hundreds of thousands of bigots in the United Kingdom and they deserve representation.”

He later insisted the comments were “clearly light-hearted harmless banter in the pub” and did “not reflect any seriously held belief”.

He added: “I don’t recall the conversation taking place, but some of the words attributed to me are actually a quote from the late [Tory MP] Eric Forth, which, if they were spoken at all, would have been on a discussion about him.

“None of this is reflective of my own views or those of the party, and I am sure any reader would recognise the difference between a formal party position and the sort of jag lots of people have with their mates while having a drink.”

Nudge, nudge, down the pub, having a pint with his mates, quoting Eric Forth, adding Ukip to the joke, as you do.

Jag. We don't have that in the 'Port, do we?

Banter - and from a City barrister, no less.

I fully expect the Queen to make an off colour joke in her next Christmas Day address, followed by shouting "banter!".

Party leader Nigel Farage tweeted of the comments: "I am not going to stop Ukip officials going to the pub, having a joke, and quoting Eric Forth".

Calling your own voters bigots? Even in jest?

Like the jeweller Ratner and his comments about his own product, that'll come back to haunt you.

And isn't it funny how we never hear their banter quoting Nye Bevan?

Unfortunately for Mr Richardson, his comments on the NHS were caught on video in which he looks not the least tired and emotional, and in which he seems to be nowhere near a pub.

Speaking at the Young Americans Foundation conference in Washington five years ago, he said: “When I was younger a trillion was an astronomic number. Now when I look at our national deficits, and your national deficits, actually it is an economic number.

“A number I couldn't possible imagine when I was younger is now the amount of money that is owed by my country, and soon more than that by your country, to other countries, paying for wasteful socialist programmes. And of course at the heart of this, the Reichstag bunker of socialism is the National Health Service.”

Comparing the beloved NHS to the last days of the regime of a mass killer.

I hear treatment for foot-in-mouth disease is still, at present, free at the point of delivery.

Mr Richardson has also, in a different venue in the same year in a speech to young Conservatives, called the NHS “the biggest waste of money in the UK”.

I see the party is still having trouble keeping the "bad stuff" out of the media.

John Prescott must be kicking himself - if only he'd been born that little bit later, nothing he did would have raised an eyebrow by comparison.

How I yearn for the good old days of the "Prescott moment" at every election - and Gwent had a good one where Mr P had a fruity altercation with an Argus reporter.

They now seem rose-tinted and filmed in sepia by comparison with the current video offerings.

Leaving all this jag aside, I do have a question: what is Ukip policy on the NHS exactly?

A few years ago, Mr Farage was all for privatisation, then a U-turn and now, in a conversion worthy of Saul on the road to Damascus, he reckons our NHS is not for sale. (Many would say part of it has already gone under the hammer.) So what about Mr Richardson's comments on the NHS?

How exactly would Ukip fund the NHS if Mr Farage is committed to it?

Answers on the back of a fag packet at the bar of the Dog and Duck, please.