When Two Strong Men Stand Face to Face

In a bizarre echo of the Bush administration's dealings with the Taliban before the invasion of Afghanistan, the leader of an inept, crooked and torture-happy regime has ordered Pakistan to destroy Osama bin Laden or face the consequences. The prime minister of Pakistan, whose intelligence services have worked so effictively with our own, has responded by asserting that bin Laden is not in the country; and, like the Taliban, he even called on the international community to produce evidence, of all things, for its claims to the contrary.

Meanwhile, one of Gordon's domestic enemies has promised to "facilitate visas" allowing the return of seven students whom the Glorious Successor pronounced guilty of involvement in a major terrorist plot. In the event, the plot was so big that the police released the perpetrators without charge, and it was left to the Ministry of Dawn Raids and Deportations to remove the threat. Besides further enhancing the Glorious Successor's already considerable abjection factor, the return of the students will no doubt enable yet more rational debate on immigration, particularly in the light of Britain's newly-liberalised rules on dealing with unauthorised photographic activities.