The distinguishing mark of modern society, G K Chesterton once wrote, is a hatred of religion. If that was the case more than 100 years ago, you could magnify it 100 times over for today. Hatred is the crucial word. Not apathy or indifference, but a violent reaction of the type that can lead to intemperate, illogical language even from clever people.

Such language was to be heard again this week following the report that a Catholic priest, Father James Chesney, had been suspected of organising an IRA bombing that killed nine people, some of them Catholics, in the village of Claudy in 1972. Here was yet further proof of the iniquity of the Church following hard upon the scandal of the child abusers.

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To most of us, 27th July 2010 was a day like any other – but not in the eyes of certain BBC moguls. All day on TV, radio and on line, there was wall-to-wall coverage of the Olympics, due to start on 27th July 2012.
Marking events before they happen is a particularly lame way to fill summer news schedules and a regrettable development in the curse of anniversary-itis at the BBC. More than 100 staff descended on the Olympic Park in East London to bore for Britain from the newly completed velodrome, the nearly completed stadium and nearly completed running tracks. Breakfast News and the One O’Clock News were both broadcast live from Newham and there were ‘lives’ and ‘simulcasts’ across all networks.