The merits of bumbling incompetence.

Sometime around when Mrs Thatcher first came to power, a caricature of her husband Denis as a right-wing buffoon appeared in the press (possibly first in Private Eye, though I couldn’t say for sure). The image stuck, and that’s how we saw him for the rest of his life.

More recently, Carol Thatcher (daughter of the ex-PM) has let it be known that the family instantly liked the caricature, and positively encouraged the image. It worked to the prime minister’s advantage, because it meant that if her husband did or said anything likely to be politically damaging, it would be attributed to his buffoonery and discounted. In fact of course he was a successful high-flyer in his own right, just as the present prime minister’s wife is.

Now the Iran prisoner story has blown up in the government and navy’s face, and they’re readily admitting to utter incompetence. All the meeja are feasting on the carcass of their credibility.

And the media, well-satisfied with what they’ve got, have lost all interest in looking into anything more sinister than gross stupidity ….