Morrissey, I'm sure, will be ready to explain why this doesn't make him tiresomely racist

Yes, he's done it again:

[H]e reignites a simmering row about his views on race in an interview in Guardian Weekend magazine, in which he describes Chinese people as a "subspecies" because of their treatment of animals.

The context? He's talking to Simon Armitage for the Guardian weekend magazine, when he gets on to China. And animals:

"Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies."

Is it not possible to raise ill-treatment of animals without slagging off all the Chinese?

If past form is anything to go by, we'd expect Morrissey to have his people issue a statement claiming misquotation, followed by dark threats of legal action.

Which does remind us: whatever happened to the supposed lawsuit against the NME after they ran his last ill-considered "oh, it's not racism" dribbles about foreign people in the streets of London. He did, in a rather Bob Maxwell style, sue a third party, but the supposed action against the paper which "misquoted" him? Not a dickie bird.

One further curiosity: on that occasion, the journalist he accused of misrepresenting him was Tim Jonze. The same Tim Jonze who is currently music editor of... guardian.co.uk.

Small world, isn't it, Morrissey? Although obviously not as small as you'd like it to be.