I completely agree with every single poster who has voiced their hurt at this phrase being used. I also agree that it was an awful choice of word and actually in many ways worse than the outdated and offensive words such as 'spaz' etc., BUT....
Mitigating circumstances. Huhne Jnr did not write these words to offend everyone, he wrote them in anger. He was wrong, but his rage shold be taken into account. Yes, he shouldn't have used that word as a weapon or as the 'lowest insult he could think of' and yes it was offensive. I do though feel that his rage and hurt must be taken into account, and he's guilty of thoughtlessness to others, which often happens when red mist falls.
I have called one person a fat ugly stupid twat before now, not nice, not grown up, offensive to many (myself included probably!) but in a rage we name call. It is a shame he chose that particular word, I can think of many more that wold have been less globally offensive and more accurate.
Amberleaf you don't need to lighten up. I do think context has a lot to do with it. Hopefully when this storm has died down for Huhne Jnr, he will apologise or regret that choice of word, but right now he's in his own storm and I doubt somebody telling him he's being offensive won't help anyone... right now. My brother once called someone a Gaylord. He was wrong. He was in pain, intended to offend and spoke a playground insult. He's not homophobic and in his calm grown up state would never use it. It was slang those days and widely used. Just as 'morbidly obese' is now one favourite phrase in the playground since calling someone a fat twat has been outlawed. There's nothing nice about it.