What I love about this is that a minister who should, by definition be an above- average communicator, has fallen foul of a basic problem with writing, as opposed to speaking, with attendent voice inflections, facial expressions and so on -
it is possible to be misinterpereted in print far more than in speech.
Most people who post on here - and i am certainly one - jhave had their messages misunderstood by others, attepmed humour has not been received as it was transmitted.
So let's give the guy the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he basically has a sledgehammer sense of humour, and his words have been misunderstood.
In that case, the proper response is - I offended you in error, please accept my sincere apologies, not -
You are a bunch of humourless morons for failing to underestand my rapier irony.
Just for the record, I think he meant every word, and as is usual with the humourless and bigoted - and how often they go together - he is trying to shift the blame in the most offensive and ineffectual way possible.