Doing Us Proud

President Hamid Karzai, of the sovereign, liberated republic of Afghanistan, has continued applying the lessons he's learned from his country's democratificators. Having won last year's election in the manner of George W Bush, and been arbitrarily deprived of his victory thanks to foreign interference, Karzai has decreed that from now on the legitimacy of elections will be determined after the Hutton-Chilcot fashion. That is to say, investigations will be carried out by people who have been appointed by those they are meant to be investigating, thus ensuring that the investigators maintain an appropriately nuanced and charitable perspective. Our boys must be rejoicing. Quite apart from basking in the continued approbation of Tony and Gordon, this is just the sort of thing to make them feel it's all been worth their while.