Now that the Director General of the BBC has explicitly adopted an alt-right trope by saying employees must avoid “virtue-signalling”, can we at least stop parroting the idea that the state broadcaster is institutionally left-wing?

It’s worse than that, though. The things regularly called “virtue-signalling” by the right (feeding children, stopping people drowning, believing in equality, taking the side of the marginalised, the powerless and the dispossessed) were traditionally covered by the word “virtue”.

People haven’t been making sandwiches for hungry children this week because they’re signalling their virtue, but because it’s the right thing to do.

In those circumstances, shouldn’t we all be signalling our own - and each other’s - virtue as visibly as possible?

By replacing the idea of virtue with the sneer of “virtue-signalling”, you effectively ban the practice of being virtuous. Or kind. Or decent. Or human.

And it can easily be extended to criticism of the government. Be ready to hear any positive force or opposition to the latest cruel government policy labelled virtue signalling. This marks a huge and dangerous rightward shift from the BBC.