The hysterical, hyper-ventilated response to the recent on-air conduct of Martine Croxall beggars belief. The BBC journalist and newsreader had unconscionably allowed her personal values to disfigure an important report about those groups who might be most at risk during heatwaves. It was based on a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Ms Croxall said this: “Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, says that the aged, pregnant people – women - and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions.”

She had taken a unilateral decision to correct the term ‘pregnant people’ by inserting the word ‘women’. And then she had arched her eyebrow to such an extent that it might qualify for its own Council Tax band. What was she thinking?

I’ve got a message for Ms Croxall. Martine, my love; ‘pregnant people’ can include women too. So, what’s with the aggressive eyebrow energy? Not surprisingly, there were 22 complaints about Ms Croxall’s self-indulgent intervention. Indeed, I’d expected there to have been many more.

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If BBC reporters insist on inserting references to women as a separate category then it’s clear the corporation is risking our trust. Yet, the BBC has faced a backlash from many other members of the perma-raging, people-with-breasts-and-a-vagina community. They think that possessing these physical characteristics confers the right to be called women exclusively to them.

In these very turbulent times when the world seems intent on destroying itself either by nuclear weapons or by committing genocide on wur bees, you can’t be too careful. In such a delicate and treacherous geo-political terrain a dodgy tilt of the head here or an irresponsible smirk there could cost millions of people their lives and –more importantly – play havoc with global stock markets.

© Herald Scotland