What an absolutely pathetic testament to human folly that all this fuss, both official and popular, should be made over the mortal remains, such as they are, of some medieval king.

Whether saint, sinner or simply of average virtue for the time, place and station, and notwithstanding his degree of what would be nowadays (if the term has not recently been superseded) described as disability, Richard III was monarch merely as a result of centuries of violence, greed, intrigue etc.

This is unless one believes in divine right, karma or something of the sort – luck, be it good, bad or neutral.

That has ultimately been the case of each of his successors, of course, irrespective of, once on the throne, how adequate or otherwise they may have turned out to be. On the subject of “leaders”, what on earth was the point of David Cameron’s rather ultimately, highly hypocritical declaration that he would not stand for a third term of office, let alone his speculation as to who may replace him in 2020, by which time all manner of unforeseen events will have occurred?

Did he learn nothing from Tony Blair’s similar pronouncement?

Anyway, I was interested to learn that, on “a relatively normal Saturday by his own standards”, the PM is “followed around” by a BBC TV crew, with this being covered by the Oxford Mail.

DAVID DIMENT
Riverside Court
Oxford