Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, toffee-nosed, maloderous, pervert!

Ah yes, that's just abuse. Sorry, try next door.

Listening to our great leader talking tough on his anti-terrorism 90 day internment proposal today, I couldn't help but think of a Monty Python sketch. Blair just doesn't understand argument.

Tony Blair: This proposal is a fantasic idea.
House of Commons: No it isn't.
TB: Yes it is.
HofC: No it isn't.
TB Yes it is.
HofC: No it isn't.
TB: Look, I'm happy to have the argument but I happen to believe that this proposal is absolutely essential.
HofC: That isn't an argument.
TB: Yes it is.
HofC: No it isn't
TB: Yes it is....

HofC: An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
TB: No, it isn't.
HofC: Yes it is.
TB: No it isn't.
HofC: Yes it is....

TB: No, argument is when I tell you what I've decided and then you agree that it's the correct decision.
HofC: No, it isn't.
TB: Yes it is.
HofC: No it isn't.

TB: An argument is conceding to every demand made by the police unless we've got a very good reason not to.
HofC: We have very good reasons not to.
TB: No you don't.
HofC: Yes we do.
TB: No you don't.
HofC: Yes we do.
TB: No you don't.
HofC: Listen, argument is an intellectual process...
TB: No it isn't.
HofC: Oh, this is futile!

Yes, anyway.

It is, of course, a pretty common failing among human beings. Making a decision, or arriving at a view on a given subject, is relatively easy. Recognising that your position is flawed or incorrect, especially after being presented with the rational arguments of others, is a far more difficult proposition. Hands up anyone who doesn't find that difficult? It just is. We don't like to be wrong; it seems to be inbuilt. I think most people come to understand this and, more importantly, we also come to understand that it isn't a strength but a weakness. We make efforts to overcome this as it's undoubtedly an obstacle to greater knowledge and understanding, both of ourselves and our surroundings. It isn't easy and we don't always succeed (I certainly don't anyway) but we are always aware of the need to try.

Blair hasn't reached that understanding yet. I get the feeling he's one of the unfortunate one's who'll never understand it. In fact, it's probably another of the reasons why he's so close to Bush; it's something else they have in common (along with a love of aggressive preventive war).* To me, the fact that we've got such intellectually stunted individuals in charge (in Downing Street and in the Whitehouse) is more than a little alarming.

* I think the official term is "preventive action" or something but I think "preventive war" exposes the utterly ludicrous nature of the concept a lot better.