Moderately Helpful

After all the extremist rhetoric that has marred Britain's struggle for independence from the Strasbrussels yoke, it's reassuring to observe that Her Majesty's Government may have resumed at least one of the more sensible policies from the golden age of Blairite moderation. The Hindu nationalist government in India has imprisoned a Briton in connection with Sikh nationalism, and Britain's intelligence services have been accused in the high court of colluding in his unlawful arrest and torture. Britain's National Johnson was just about able to acknowledge the arbitrariness of the man's four and a half years of detention without charge, and to refrain from quoting Churchill on the beastliness of the Indian race; but since no death sentence has yet been passed, the business of getting it increased must be left to his successor. It may not be quite so glamorous as helping the World Cop fill up Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo Bay; but it's still good clean fun.