February 2009 Archives

The death of Ivan Cameron has had a profound effect on the entire nation.

And this cannot be solely attributed to the very real feelings of sympathy and condolence that have gone out to the Conservative leader and his wife.

News of the sudden death of the six year-old who suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy have focused attention on the dedication and love that David Cameron and his wife Samantha lavished on the their firstborn.

Details of their care and commitment - the way they insisted on including the all but helpless youngster in every aspect of their family life, the nights they spent sleeping on hospital floors beside his bed after he had been, yet again, rushed into A&E - would have moved the stoniest heart.

The idea that Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, could be released from prison is unthinkable, outrageous, utterly preposterous.

So why is it then that niggling at the corner of the mind is the thought that it might just happen?

Well, first that someone in the Ripper camp is clearly testing the water.

On Tuesday we were confronting the misery of two month-old Rhys Biggs.

He had crushed ribs, a snapped wrist and a broken shoulder when an ambulance crew took him from his blood-spattered cot in Haringey, North London.

His crack addict mother Claire Biggs, 27, and her boyfriend Paul Husband, 33, were found guilty of child cruelty, and face jail sentences.

Just 24 hours later we were hearing of the agony of two year-old Sanam Navsarka.

Beaten with a metal pole, the little girl died with fractures to all her limbs and a total of 107 injuries.

Friends of Carol Thatcher have been lining up to issue explanations for her G-word gaffe.

Apparently she's naïve, unsophisticated, "an extraordinary mixture of intelligence and foolishness" and "not highly conscious of politics or deeply serious". And she has made a habit of saying outrageous things because she was ignored by her parents.
OK.

So does any of that excuse the daughter of the former Prime Minister comparing the French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to a golliwog? Of course not.