The Return of the Chingford Polecat

Although I find his views on economic matters deplorable, I've always admired the courage the former Conservative Cabinet minister Norman Tebbit showed after the 1984 Brighton Bombing and the devotion he has shown to his wife Margaret, who was paralysed in the attack. Tebbit has accused the BBC of 'double standards' after it invited him on to a programme with the man who planted the bomb at Brighton, Patrick Magee. He said he found it 'distasteful' that the BBC was elevating Magee, who has never properly apologised for his actions, to 'celebrity status'. Tebbit goes on:

"What a pity Dr Harold Shipman is dead. Putting him back in surgery for consultation with the families of those he killed and a survivor or two of his medications would have made such a contribution to the BBC's mission to inform and entertain".

Quite. The interesting thing to note about Magee is that he was released in 1999 as part of the Good Friday agreement brokered by a British Prime Minister who repeatedly assures us is 'tough on terrorism'. He should of course have said "Tough on terrorism so long as it's not carried out by the IRA or the Kosovan Liberation Army".