WHEN you read the sorts of taunts that Nigel Taylor has endured, you have to wonder about your fellow man.

Life has hardly been kind to Mr Taylor and yet two people in their 30s started taunting him on the bus about his disabilities, in full view of others.

Some may take the view of ‘sticks and stones’, but why should people like Mr Taylor be expected to endure this moronic behaviour?

Where were the other people on that bus who should have said that in Oxfordshire, in the 21st century, this is just not acceptable?

Why should a man with disabilities be reduced to taking out his hearing aid as the only recourse to block out this bullying?

A new hate crime hotline was launched yesterday and we hope it is a success because the abuse and physical attacks the disabled, gays and lesbians and ethnic minorities still face is despicable.

But we hope the hotline is used correctly as well, so it can properly direct police resources.

Society also has a place to self-police the ‘lower-level’ abuse.

The recent cases of police arresting idiots who have made tasteless comments on Twitter or Facebook are disturbing because imbecilic behaviour is still not a crime.

Many of those incidents should have been left to the online community to rain condemnation down upon the miscreants, rather than tying up police who could better spend their time on more serious incidents.

We all have our part to play when someone like Mr Taylor is being taunted. He should not have to remove his hearing aid because an uncaring community is wilfully turning a deaf ear to such abuse.