Boyle quits column over Jackson jokes

Comedian Frankie Boyle has quit his job as a columnist for the Daily Record after the newspaper refused to publish an article containing Michael Jackson jokes following the star's death.

The Mock The Week comic announced the decision on his official website and provided a link to a document containing the feature in question.

Boyle said: "Oh dear. Had to quit my Daily Record column over a moral disagreement. We disagreed over whether it was okay to make jokes about a dead child molester.

"Here is the whole column, big love my n*****s."

Fellow stand-up Richard Herring wrote on his own website: "I think laughing in the face of horrible and tragic death is an appropriate response and actually much less offensive than the TV coverage, or the hysteria of people eulogising someone that they didn't know and never met.

"If Jackson had lived an exemplary life then it might have been less dignified to joke so quickly, but to be conferring sainthood on this man without any dissenting voices would be just as wrong."