Time for some relief from all the angst that usually fills these columns. Here are the heroes I've come across this week (some rather belatedly): beacons of sense and sanity to us all ...
Bertie Pollock, who set fire to his father's copy of the Guardian whist he (his dad that is) was reading it. As Bertie explained to his therapist, he'd nothing against his father, and actually quite liked him, it was the Guardian he objected to as it told people what to think. Bertie is 5.
Bonnie Greer, who told some members of the Brontë Society that they were "malevolent lamebrains". Such direct speaking of truth to incompetence is all too rare.
Tian Tian, who reportedly grunted to Yang Guang: "I hope President Xi raises the issue of why we've been imprisoned here for so long."
I should say that only one of these three is a real person. No prizes for seeing that it's Ms Greer. Bertie is a character in a book by Alexander McCall Smith (but there must be lots of Berties in Edinburgh) – and there are 6 more books about him. The Chinese are, of course, the incarcerated giant pandas who featured in a Spectator cartoon. It's surely time to liberate the Edinburgh Two.
Respond