If a gaffe is committed and nobody knows about it, is it a gaffe?

As you can see from Andrew Bowman’s post further down, Kevin McNamara, a left-wing Labour MP, has distinguished himself by saying that Michael Howard’s views about gypsy encampments and the planning laws have “a whiff of the gas chamber about them.” For various reasons I am not Michael Howard’s biggest fan, but I do think that saying that to a man whose grandmother was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz is… well, in the light of Ken Livingstone’s recent remarks, shall we settle on newsworthy?

The news has reached Australia.

At the time of writing, four minutes to midnight, it hasn’t yet reached the BBC website.