Not Just Compassion, But Aspiration Too

Prospects for peace in the Middle East received a brief and temporary boost today as the Ascended Incarnation of the Reverend Blair resigned his post as special envoy for the financial interests of Tony Blair. It is as yet unclear what new role his reverence will take on, or whether his erstwhile employers will be able to replace so dynamic a preserver of the status quo and so dedicated a consigner of Arabs to the peace they rest in. Few would deny that his reverence's ministry to the Levantines has been controversial, although one understandably anonymous disciple said that much had been achieved with regard to the free movement of natives between bantustans. More recently, the healing hand of his reverence has been felt in opening the Allenby border crossing, named for another conquering hero in a war nearly as glamorous and ethically uplifting as the famous Iraq crusade. Whatever the next stage in the journey, his reverence surely cannot fail to take pride in his most obtrusive Middle Eastern legacy: the rise of Islamic State, which shares both his respect for human life and his intensely relaxed attitude to history.