As Maggie Thatcher once said, "The lady's not for turning." That has become a staple doctrine of Conservative politics. Never admit an error: it's a sign of weakness. Never hold anyone accountable: it's an admission of guilt.
This explains the modern Conservatives' appeal to a certain mindset of supporters, people who identify with that blinkered "I'm never wrong" attitude. Supporting Howard meant never having to say you are sorry. It meant always being right about everything. No wonder many of them are pissed at Nelson today, even if his apology was badly fudged.
Is it time for some enquiries yet? AWB? WMDs? Hicks? Haneef?
It will be a great pleasure to lay a few hard facts on the table for these wilfully ignorant fools.
UPDATE: I was saying much the same thing about Bush just the other day:
As many observers have noted, Dubya has never been held accountable for any of his many mistakes in life. Bush now seems determined to go to his grave without ever admitting his failures: "History will be my judge," he says.And I cited this hilarious example:
''I don't know why you're talking about Sweden,'' Bush said. ''They're the neutral one. They don't have an army.''
Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: ''Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They're the ones that are historically neutral, without an army.'' Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.
Bush held to his view. ''No, no, it's Sweden that has no army.''
The room went silent, until someone changed the subject
