Ted Kennedy (2)

I railed against Kennedy's knighthood earlier this year. Now the old charlatan is dead. This is a man who has occupied public office since the 1960s and seems to have done nothing except let down his family and his country.

Fitting, I thought, that one of his last pronouncements should have been to complain against the release of Megrahi while having been an active supporter of the IRA for years. Some terrorists, you see, are beyond redemption whereas other terrorists are a useful political bandwagon.

De mortuis nil nisi bonum, I should have mentioned, does not apply to this blog. Let the blighter be judged by a higher court.

Ted Kennedy

'Senator Kennedy, you cheated at school, you panicked at Chappaquiddick, what makes you think you're fit to be President?' was the opening line of a somewhat tough (but fair) interview of this ambitious member of the American Royal Family.

This is a man who is famous for having a famous father and two famous brothers. He is distinguished for nothing else except his political longevity (he became a senator on the back of his brother's presidency in 1962).

Now we learn that Her Majesty the Queen is pleased to grant this person a knighthood, and that Gordon Brown will announce (perhaps even confer?) it on his visit to Washington. I suppose Ceaucescu and Mugabe got them but it really is time this nonsense stopped.

Mark my words, it'll be Des O'Connor next.