HERE’S an uncomfortable question: can being rude about multiculturalism lead you to the horrors committed by Anders Breivik, the Norwegian killer arrested for the massacre of his own people, mostly teenagers?

As the Norwegians mourn, and while we stand alongside them in sorrow, perhaps it is not even fitting to wonder about the causes. The way the talking heads and, yes, the columnists, pile in after terrible events can be unseemly, but in the end these questions will be asked.

Perhaps it is foolish to suggest any link between worrying that multiculturalism is a bad thing to a murderous right-wing killer filled with demented hatred. So let me risk being a fool.

It has become too fashionable to disparage multiculturalism and the Prime Minister for one can’t stop himself from having a go.

David Cameron’s most notable contribution came four months ago in Munich, when he declared that state multiculturalism had failed. This prompted no lesser loon that Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, to proclaim that Mr Cameron’s comments represented “a further huge leap for our ideas into the political mainstream”.

It would be nice to think Mr Cameron squirmed when he heard that one, but you never know.

The trouble with all this is that it is difficult to find a balance between expressing doubts and setting off towards hateful bigotry.

Clearly, Mr Cameron does not endorse such behaviour, even if some unreconstructed members of his party still might. Perhaps his statement in Munich was just a bit of red meat for those in the fuggy back rooms of his party, a belated sign that he understood.

Well, maybe – but you cannot attack multiculturalism without saying what should happen instead. This should be especially so in this mongrel patchwork quilt of a nation of ours, in which so many races have been sewn together down the centuries. Any notion of finding a pure washed Briton in among that colourful bedspread of genealogical scraps is surely laughable.

This variety in who were are and where we came from is a strength and not a handicap; it’s how we evolved, and we should remember that when nasty noises are made about whatever form of otherness is raising concerns at any given time.

Breivik’s unhinged hatred was directed at immigrants and Muslims in particular, and, shamefully, he was said to have been inspired by the right-wing English Defence League.

According to Thorbjorn Jagland, Norwegian chairman of the Nobel peace prize committee, European leaders such as Mr Cameron should be more cautious in the way they discuss multiculturalism, for fear of inflaming far-right sentiments.

Which was unfortunate because when he was in Munich, Mr Cameron carried on like a man lobbing lit matches into a petrol tank.

Mr Jagland suggests that instead Europe’s leaders should talk about “diversity”. Well, that might work – so long as it doesn’t become equally tainted. Sadly, it is all too easy to imagine Mr Cameron and others shamelessly sneering about “diversity” in much the same way.

This, of course, leaves the difficulty over what we can and what we cannot talk about. Personally, I am fine with multiculturalism, diversity or whatever you wish to call it. Others are less content, sometimes bitterly so. How to bridge that gap has never been straightforward, and still isn’t.

• DAVID Cameron has other problems, too. Apparently, he has offended the fashion police of the Daily Mail by sporting black slip-on work shoes without socks while on his holiday in Italy.

Meanwhile, the Chancellor, George Obsborne, was similarly ticked off after being photographed in Los Angeles wearing baggy blue jeans and a grey suit jacket.

For once, I feel sorry for both men (and you’ve not read that here before). Can’t a man go on holiday without being nagged by the never-satisfied, fish-eyed harridans of Fleet Street?

As for me, when on holiday I am very much a short-sleeved shirt, shorts and sandals sort of fellow. Sometimes I even leave my shirt un-tucked, but that’s about as daring as it gets. But socks with the sandals? Never, no, how dare you.