An article from the Daily Mail this week highlighted the legal intricacies faced by recruiters in this day and age when writing ad copy for jobs.

Nicole Mamo, who runs Hertfordshire-based Devonwood Recruitment, was meticulous in her wording for hospital workers, ensuring the ad did not in any way offend on ground of race, age or sexual orientation — or so she thought.

Her local Jobcentre Plus scrutinised her ad and came back to her saying it couldn’t go in that form. And the reason? She wasn’t able to ask for applicants who were ‘reliable’ and ‘hard-working’ as that could be offensive to unreliable people.

Mamo told the Daily Mail: “In my 15 years in recruitment I haven’t heard of anything so ridiculous. If the matter wasn’t so serious I would be laughing out loud.

“Even the woman at the job centre agreed it was ridiculous but explained it was policy because they could get sued for being discriminatory against unreliable people.”

Oh dear. Is this the worst form of political correctness gone mad? In the words of Esther Rantzen from her That’s Life! days (ask your parents) — unless, of course, you know differently.