Sugaring the Pill

Whether because her own minions have advised it on public-relations grounds, or because of the media's recent excessive sympathy towards the immigrant family of Saxe-Coburg-Middleton, Theresa May has come out as a diabetic. Whatever our personal regrets about her continuing immunity to pellagra, elephantiasis or stomach cancer, this is possibly the first intelligent thing she has done during her dismal career as Home Secretary. Type 1 diabetes may not push the sympathy buttons like a Death of Little Ivan, but it does call attention to the plight of the deserving non-health-tourist; it has enabled May to blather a bit in the Stürmer on Sunday about keeping calm and carrying on; and it's almost certainly a cheaper option than adopting a white working-class baby. It would, of course, be uncharitable in the extreme to suggest that May has made the announcement purely because Lynton Crosby has some clients in the insulin racket.