Lost art of the insult It is not a racist insult to call someone a "stupid, fat Australian." So Chester Crown Court has ruled, overturning a conviction for racially aggravated public disorder. Why should "Australian" be an insult at all? Here the insultee was a New Zealander. It can be annoying to be confused with somebody from a larger neighbour, as Austrians may find when called Germans or Belgians when called French. But is it worse to be called something true or something false? Is "cheese-eating" worse than "surrender-monkey"? The art of insult is in decline, under pressure from petty laws. But it was never a high-scoring insult to draw attention to the obvious, such as fatness. The doubtful is far more effective, for the whole world suspects itself of being boring, say, or foolish. Perhaps the insult, then, against which there is no defence in these egalitarian times, is to be called patronising.