Go quickly said the bird

Jacques Chirac (President of France) says yesterday he is "not at all sure" the world has become safer with the removal from power of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Damn right it hasn't. As I was saying in the letters page of the Guardian only the other day, if Tony Blair was in any other branch of the public service he would be working to targets. So where do you stand with regard to your terrorist targets, Mr Blair? At a rough glance I would say that since you and your boss declared war, there has been more, not less, terrorist activity. Much more. Mind you, this is only an impression, and for anything to exist it has to be measured, as any fule kno. Someone Should Be Measuring Terrorist Activity. Bombs. Bodies. Abductions. So That We Know When We Are Winning.

If the Government is counting and measuring terrorism, they certainly will not share it with us, not until the terrorism response rate begins to fall - which may not be for 25 years.

Why do I bother to write this? Why do you bother to read it? Because this, too, is part of our reality. Go, go quickly said the bird, for humankind cannot bear very much reality.

I'm going.