To Learn from the Bad and to Cherish the Good

Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear; which is doubtless why Her Majesty's Government is holding back files which detail Britain's entirely innocent involvement in the bloody storming of the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984, which led directly to the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the subsequent anti-Sikh pogroms in which thousands died and millions were displaced. According to the official story, Britain's involvement was limited to one single rather small military adviser whose previous owner only took him out on Sundays, and whose advice was in any case not followed. An inquiry ordered by the well-known devotee of truth and former Head Boy of the Bullingdon administration found no evidence of British involvement; but this is not good enough for the Sikh Foundation, which holds the bizarre belief that Her Majesty's Government ought to share potentially embarrassing information with the plebs (and darkie plebs, at that), much as fans of female ejaculation are now required to share their porn preferences with the dead-eyed warden of HM Prison UK. An appeal to the Freedom of Information tribunal is to be heard in the new year; the final result will presumably depend on which the Government decides to abolish first: the freedom of information laws or the right to wear a turban.