A Personal Tragedy (2)

The responses to my post are quite revealing; like those on the News of the World site they are mixed, but I am encouraged that quite a few people on both sites have got the message that the judge's conduct was sad rather than wicked.

Of course the judge was unwise. Of course his conduct was reckless. Of course his position on the bench is threatened, not because he did anything illegal, but because he may have caused fatal damage to his dignity. He will pay an awesome price for all of that.

But how many people over the years have destroyed or damaged themselves under the influence, to them irresistible, of love and of lust? I freely admit that I have in my time been foolish and selfish, hurting people I love. So did a million others.

I spoke of this as a tragedy because I pity and sympathise with a man who has brought his world crashing about his ears. That doesn't mean that I somehow condone or minimise his foolish actions - a 60 year-old QC acting like a gormless teenager - but we should all be aware of our physical and emotional frailties, and the disasters they can bring.

As that Nazarene troublemaker said two thousand years ago:- "let he among you who is without sin cast the first stone".

Go on then.