Mrs May has to be braver

WELL, it may be unpopular but Mrs May is right that people must use their own assets to pay for their care. It is not the duty of the state to secure anybody’s inheritance.

However if she can be brave about this then why not be brave enough to admit that the NHS in its present form cannot last and that we must start a national debate about the options? I know, from responses to my own statements, that there is a widespread recognition that this is necessary but no party leader appears to have the necessary courage.

Yet the political climate has never been better. What are you waiting for, Theresa?

Farron is weak

TIM FARRON is at it again. This time he is prevaricating over his views on abortion and has accused the media of “banging on” about his faith.

I have a lot of sympathy with his view that he is being picked on because of his Christian faith and I am still waiting for practising Muslim candidates to be questioned as minutely as Christians, but he is not helping himself with his consistent refusal to answer the question.

He was right to avoid pronouncing on “sin” but now he is being asked for his views on a major moral topic and he is letting everybody down.

He is letting down his own party by allowing his campaign to be side-tracked and he is letting down fellow Christians by refusing to say bravely and straightforwardly what he thinks.

I suspect the Lib Dems will decide the lesson to be learned from this is never again to elect a practising Christian as leader.

The real lesson however is not that they should not have chosen a Christian but rather that they should have chosen a much braver one.

Banality of evil

IF Myra Hindley had never met Ian Brady the chances are she would have become a normal northern mum who would never have understood how anybody could kill a child. Instead, as a result of a successful job application, she met a monster who unleashed some profound latent wickedness that was there inside her.

For me the most sinister aspect of the moors murderers was simply their seeming utter normality. During a period of two and a half years they tortured, abused and killed children, then went back to work where their colleagues suspected not a thing.

It is a reminder to us all that monsters do not come with two horns and a tail. They pass among us unrecognised, outwardly as normal and often as welcome as bluebells in spring.