don't mention the war

A fascinating story in the news today is that of 82 year old Walter Wolfgang, a pensioner/activist expelled from the Labour Party Conference for shouting 'Nonsense!' at Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during a speech about the government's decision to go to war in Iraq. The television coverage of this small and rather frail-looking old man being forcibly dragged from his seat and removed from the Conference hall made superb television and - even though the poor man must have been terribly distressed at the time - provided some wonderful publicity for Mr Wolfgang's cause. Indeed, the pensioner looked rather triumphant today, getting his three minutes of national airtime on the topic of Iraq ... and a personal apology from various Labour bigwigs including Tony Blair himself, who admitted the stewards had been 'a little bit over-zealous'. Ah, the almost forgotten art of understatement.