Big Ron Atkinson, the "colourful" British ex-football coach, has caused a storm of indignation after making insulting remarks about Chinese women. According to the British tabloids, the "disgraced" former Manchester United gaffer said that "the Chinese people have the best contraception in the world - but I can't understand why there's so many of them because their women are so ugly." He was attending a party held in Sheffield last week.

Normally, such remarks would have been ignored by the Chinese media, but the news clearly surfaced in the Google searches of desperate local hacks, resulting in several indignant demands for apologies and a predictable maelstrom of blood-curdling bulletin board bile. However, one respondent on the Sina board seemed to have the right perspective on the matter. "Let's forgive him. A male baboon on heat will of course think that no woman in the world could be as pretty as a female baboon."

As many have remarked, the Ronster has prior form when it comes to bigotry. As a TV football pundit, he once regaled the audience with his views on Marcel Desailly, the black Chelsea defender, after which he was forced to resign.