Perspectives.

In order to show respect for the personal tragedies that some people cruelly suffered, and in recognition of the emotive nature of the subject, let me decline a long post and just offer a little snippet of history as an oblique comment on today’s big news item.

After the Romans had heaped their indignities on Queen Boudicca and her daughters, the original Iron Lady gathered an army together and attacked London. If received history is to be believed, the terror she inflicted on its private citizens exceeded most modern atrocities by some way in both scope and cruelty. Yet we revere Boudicca as a great British heroine. A big statue of her stands outside the Palace of Westminster.

And I would add that when national leaders who lay claim to the title of statesman pander to the lowest common denominator of triumphalist hyperbole, what little light they might possess grows dimmer to my eyes.