Revenge is not a sin, it’s a public service

It was never likely that Chris Huhne’s agonies over what will sooner or later be called Penaltypointsgate would arrive unaccompanied by a rash of commentary about revenge.

It was never likely that Chris Huhne’s agonies over what will sooner or later be called Penaltypointsgate would arrive unaccompanied by a rash of commentary about revenge. All of three hours elapsed before ‘Hell hath no fury…’ — now so over-used that we have to tail off into a sheepish ellipsis after the first few words — appeared in a Fleet Street headline. This has been followed a series of columns ranging from the lip-smacking (‘those classic revenges in full: (1) Othello…’) to the pious (‘Vengeance is mine,’ saith the Lord, ‘I will repay’).

But — and this distresses me — behind the scandalised delight with which the press greets the savaging of any top politician, there has been a hint of faint but persistent disapproval towards his assailant too.