Polly On The Pope

Excellent article today by Polly Toynbee on the Pope. I'm glad it wasn't left to bloggers to put a different point of view.

ITV Lunchtime News today, to their great credit, led on the MG Rover collapse and the possible loss of up to 20,000 jobs in the Midlands.
BBC News, in contrast, were still on their knees in Rome twenty minutes into the bulletin.
And as you'd expect, the BBC's own Pontiff, John Simpson, was wheeled out to pontificate on the occasion. He and the Pope have something in common, of course. The Pope single-handedly brought down communism and John Simpson, you may recall, single-handedly liberated Kabul. Or not, as the case may be, in both cases.

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DISAPPOINTING CORRECTIONS - 49 in an occasional series

Both from The Guardian, 7/4/05:

'In our coverage of the death of the Pope we reported "Then we saw a cloud of incense swirling up from the censor being swung by a deacon".
That would have been a censer.'
No, no. Strike a blow for freedom of expression and burn a censor.

'In a report from the Vatican...we said that the Swiss Guard stood beside the catafalque.....their "legs akimbo". Only arms can be akimbo.'
Try telling that to Joan Collins. Or indeed Camilla.