Absent Friends

Someone has defaced a public bench on a London street by screwing onto it an unauthorised dedication to a favoured British ally and trading partner. Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi populist whose Churchillian methods in dealing with uncivilised tribes won the West's cordial approval until at least August 1990, was commemorated with a bronze plaque "in loving memory" by an unknown fan. Before his unfortunate transmogrification into a "brutal oppressor who ruled Iraq with violence and fear for 30 years", Saddam Hussein also gained plaudits in the civilised world for his strong, stable and fortuitously petroleum-oriented government, and for taking a staunchly firm line with the extremists who deposed the similarly benign Mohammad Reza in Iran. Whoever fixed the plaque managed to get the birth and death dates right, and also took the precaution of using special anti-theft screws; which has led at least one knowledgeable local to blame left-wing troublemakers.