Norway

I was wrong. Despite the rumour at one point that the Norwegian police were looking for a second suspect it seems that they have the only suspected perpetrator in custody. He is being questioned not only about the slaughter of the young on Utoya but also for the bombing in Oslo. I didn't think one man could kill so many in such a short space of time without using a machine gun or something similar. How mistaken I was. What a tragedy but can someone be wholly sane to commit this kind of crime? We are told he is a right wing Christian fundamentalist but as someone has reminded us one of the ten Commandments is 'thou shalt not kill'. In which case he can hardly be a Christian. Is it sure he is even right wing since Nazis are national socialists and the suspected killer is said to be an ardent nationalist. I suppose the suspect has been called right wing because those targeted were either members of the Labour government or members of the Labour party youth branch. Probably also because murderers like Mao or Stalin are always presented as less evil than Hitler who is described as right wing. Hitler was of course a national socialist and thus not right wing but few seem to be prepared to argue the point - certainly not the BBC for one. Talking about the right Charles Moore seems to have had an epiphany moment in his article this morning although I can't say I understood what he was saying 100%. What I think he was saying was that the system that evolved since Thatcher won the argument with the unions and opened up the markets that big business, the media and the politicians have combined to do down the rest of us and that the left have recognised this and are right to want to do something about it. Here I agree the state does have a role which is to ensure that competition is supported ruthlessly which means we need a plurality of players in each field of human activity. The monopoly enjoyed by the BBC should be broken up for a start.