We All Make Mistakes

Clio is frequently an ironic Muse, and never more so than where the awesome good intentions of governments are concerned. Who can forget the ironies of the Vietnam War, which the United States fought in order to save democracy in South Vietnam, only to bomb and poison the country into ruins? Who has not heaved an ironical sigh, or cracked an ironical smile, at the career of Senator McCarthy, whose notorious inactivity did so much harm to the constitutional freedoms which he cherished? With similar historical insight, a cross-party committee of MPs has concluded that the Government acted too slowly to save the steel industry, despite ministers' expectable über-Thatcherite concern with preserving Britain's manufacturing base and minimising trauma to the working classes.