A Ray of Hope

Amid all the bad news from Iraq, there is yet one hopeful sign: applications by Iraqis for asylum in Britain are being processed with an efficiency which even the Daily Mail might find difficult to fault. Eighty-eight per cent of applications from Iraqis were rejected last year, on the grounds that, as the Ministry of Having Been Split In Two states it, "there has been a clear change in the conditions in Iraq and, with it, the factors to be considered when Iraqi nationals claim asylum". In other words, Iraq is now officially a democracy, and a fair chance of being starved, poisoned, irradiated, shot, car-bombed, suicide-bombed or collaterally detrimented does not amount to the same thing as being under threat of political persecution. Saddam Hussein was the one who did political persecution; and, in case you hadn't heard, Saddam Hussein was toppled by the US-led invasion in 2003. You'd think the Iraqis would have noticed that by now.