When I read that I saw irony, a lampooning of the berks who seek to blame an entire race or religion for the actions of a few. Did the confrontation actually happen? If it did, it would take an utter pillock to then boast about it on twitter? It must be a parody, a neat skewering of fools?

The police saw the tweet as an example of alleged hate speech, nicking Doyle on suspicion of “inciting racial hatred”. The police then locked him up, removing the tweeter from his keyboard for the good of society.

Good? Surely not.

Doyle deleted his comment, but not before it had been retweeted, held aloft by the right-reminded as an example of Islamophobia and used to advertise the Met’s anti-racism credentials.

As his name rode high on the news cycle, we got to know more about Mr Doyle. He works in PR – something that recalls the joke about Max Clifford: “If he’s so good at PR, why does everyone think he’s a cunt?” Other comments on his twitter feed have been broadcast in the media. He appears to very much an irony-free idiot, a pillock’s pillock. The HuffPost featured more from his social media feeds:

Doyle was ridiculed:

Isn’t it enough that we know of Matthew Doyle and his talents in PR? He might win the EDL contract, but it’s unlikely any other outfit will be hiring him. But to make his stupidity a crime is bizarre. Are we so divided, fearful and weak that an idiot’s idiotic tweet constitutes a criminal offence? The answer is yes. And that’s depressing.