No mercy

PATRICK Mercer's crass remarks on soldiers being called "black bastards" were no doubt used to illustrate a point about rising above insults, but in these days of touchy-feely politics, he was never going to keep his job.

David Cameron acted swiftly enough to sack his errant homeland security man and the whole matter will be forgotten. Labour seized on it in a desperate attempt to paint the entire Conservative Party as racists. That's like saying the all Labour supporters are a bunch of crooks because Robert Maxwell misappropriated the Daily Mirror pension fund!