The manic depressed bear is already a big hit at Osnabruck Zoo, Germany. Visitors were excited to see Herman in a manic phase today performing tricks, dancing and riding around on a unicycle. One visitor said, ‘This is so much better than last week when he just sat there rocking backwards and forwards listening to Leonard Cohen’.

Critics have asked exactly what the zoo is doing to help Herman. ‘We’ve tried psychotherapy,’ said Dr Lemper, ‘but so far he’s mauled three analysts and eaten the couch.’

A new advertising campaign is set to convince the public that Political Correctness, long thought to have ‘gone mad’, has in fact been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

‘Political Correctness gone mad is just a lazy stereotype peddled by ignorant scaremongers, right-wing journalists, taxi drivers, and radio-show hosts,’ said a spokeswoman at the campaign’s launch.

‘Political Correctness was diagnosed as suffering from perfectly treatable Bipolar Affective Disorder in 1995, and has been on a combined course of cognitive-behavioural therapy and mood-stabilising medication ever since.

‘There’s no reason why Political Correctness shouldn’t continue to function as a perfectly ordinary social concept,’ she went on. ‘Without it, social inequality would be on the rise, racial tension would be simmering away, women would be earning substantially less than men for no good reason…hmmm. Maybe we’d better up the dose a bit.’