AS FAR as political hot potatoes go, the issue of discrimination is foil-wrapped and smoking in East Lancashire at the moment.

Employers have to demonstrate they do not make decisions based on gender, disability, ethnicity, age, hair colour, eye colour, shoe size...

And if the fiasco that was Celebrity Big Brother taught us anything, it was that stupidity and ignorance will no longer be tolerated as a defence for racist behaviour.

Discrimination laws are of course a good thing - anything that stops people being treated differently because they are in a minority should be welcomed.

But you've got to know when to draw the line between helpful behaviour and political correctness gone mad.

This week it emerged that pensioners using Blackburn with Darwen Council's Learning for Life programme of evening classes had seen their fees more than double.

The reason? The council's legal team had advised concessions for over-60s be scrapped because of age discrimination legislation.

In other words, somebody might sue for being treated differently because of their age.

Now far be it from me to tell the council how to do its job, but what about the glaringly obvious fact that many pensioners are retired, have to live off a state pension, and therefore have less disposable income to spend on things like evening classes than those younger and in full-time jobs?

But the council likes its discrimination law. Look at the way a Liberal Democrat councillor who sent an Irish joke e-mail has had his behaviour branded "stupid" and "totally inappropriate".

Poor old Councillor Alan Dean - a man known for campaigning for disabled rights - made an error in judgment by forwarding on a jokey e-mail poking fun at a fictitious Irish man and his daughters - and next thing he knows he's having to publicly deny being racist and sexist.

For goodness' sake, it was only a joke, not a particularly funny one at that, and contained nothing more abusive or sexist than most of the jokes we all hear every single day. He's hardly done a Jade Goody.

Fair enough, he should have known not to send it from his official town hall e-mail account, but it hardly warrants the time and energy it's been given.

The problem with political correctness is knowing where to stop. If we don't watch out we'll all be taking ourselves so seriously we'll forget to stop and have a laugh at ourselves every now and then - a trait this county quite rightly prides itself on.