Of all the silly ideas that are running around at the moment, one of the daftest is that of saying that you are sorry for the deeds of your forefathers to people who are long dead.
The Pope once made a public apology for The Inquisition and the treatment of poor old Galileo. Tony Blair said sorry for the slave trade: many Christians have expressed their regrets over The Crusades, and now the Church of England, led by the Arch-Druid, Arch-dipstick Archbishop of Canterbury says sorry to Charles Darwin for giving him a hard time 150 years ago.
I wonder how long it will be before Parliament apologizes to King Charles I for making him even shorter than he was, or to Joan of Arc for not calling the fire brigade ? Blimey ! If this idea went transatlantic the Native Americans could end up by apologising to Custer, and the Mexican government might even say sorry to Davey Crocket.
I feel sure that we will see more of this nonsense in the future. It’s a bit like “grief lite”, or “mourning sickness” as it is sometimes known; where people leave floral tributes and teddy bears etc. at the site of the death of people they did not know.
It may seem strange, but Charles Darwin, the greatest of non-believers, is buried in Westminster Abbey: so I think that the next time I am in the area I will pop in to see if someone has left a …
… fluffy toy monkey on his tomb.
