Sion Simon's Arrogance and Stupidity

I know I'm well behind the times on this story, and that Mr Simon (for all his anti-Tory hate, a former Daily Torygraph comment writer) has since apologised, but the breathtaking presumption of the man has been making me fume silently all week.

I have posted on satire before. What has never occurred to me, in years of reading and occasionally writing it, is that members of the government of a country could be satirists. That is, that people with all the power, lampoon people without power (and references to Cameron's Etonian schooling does not count as power, not when you are actually making the rules we all have to live by). I've always thought that when a government or ruling party attacks other people with vicious, aggressive statements that are meant to impute that the targets are devoid of humanity, it was just propaganda, or agit-prop, even.

Mr Simon's impassioned defence of his pathetic satire on Radio 5 Live on Thursday, when, to be fair, he was given a right going over by Jane Garvey, was appalling. The man leapt to his target like a starving lion, accusing Cameron of everything under the sun, and then, bizarrely, saying that if he thought Cameron was offended, he would take it off the YouTube website it was posted on.

Hang on.

You expressive virulent hatred of a man, and his ideas, and policies, and then say "of course, if he were to be offended, I would take it down".

(Of course, he did take it down, but only after the entire world called him a total nobhead).

This might be because of our cultural anxieties over offence, of course (wouldn't want to be associated with something normally the province of Tory bigots, eh?), but it just seems downright weird to me.

Anyway the Tories have lapped all this up, so I guess all we can hope for is that more stupid NewLabour MPs decide to give personal kickings to the Lib Dems. Now that might be worth watching. Come on, Mr Simon, let's see your impression of Ming Campbell.