Moral amazements

1. Salt in the wound

Irish Catholicism is in crisis over the child molestations: this is a continuing agony that will not quickly go away.

Now, what could the Irish government possibly do to exacerbate the issue? Ah, yes! Pass a blasphemy act.

As is the common view up the Rathgar Road: "Jaysus, Mary and Joseph!"

2. A Major intervention

John Major, of famed repute, has uttered his view, according to the BBC:

Former Prime Minister Sir John Major has criticised Tony Blair's handling of the Iraq war and his presentation of the case for invasion in March 2003...

He told the BBC the argument that Saddam Hussein was a bad man and must be removed was an "inadequate" one.

A "bad man"? Phew! strong language! Obviously, Saddam should have been sent to sit on the naughty step.

Niceties of international law apart, and ignoring the gargantuan failure to plan for the aftermath, what is objectionable about dethroning a bloodstained totalitarian dictator, whose penchant for genocide of his own minorities is well-attested? In Major's utterance one hears the echoes of the Tory appeasers (a majority of the Party for too many years) of the 1930s.

Now, consider Major's own record in Iraq. Did he condone the mass-extermination that was Highway 80? Did he approve of the decision to lewave Saddam in power, to continue his pogroms and murders?

Blair was, and remains a controversial figure: that is a measure of his stature. e e cummings got Major bang to rights: an arse on which everything has sat, except a man.

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