Why does one bother? In the wake of Rick Santorum’s recent hat-trick and the reports of his splendidly eloquent onslaught on Obama’s recent edict—that under his administration’s Health Care Act any provider of health care (including Catholic institutions) must be prepared to supply artificial contraception (including drugs which, though labelled contraceptive, are in fact abortifacient)—I came across, googling around, the following attack on me on an American website. The attack was provoked by my pointing out the absurdity of Santorum’s saying that the NHS had “devastated” the UK and that its economic effect was partly responsible for the collapse of the British Empire. I called this “deranged”: it might have been better to say simply grossly ignorant. However, I also made it clear that I rather liked the cut of Santorum’s jib (American politicians, after all, don’t need to know much about the UK, and rarely do). I also said what every informed US commentator also says — that he’s unelectable: I regard this as unfortunate, since the re-election of Obama, given the sheer awfulness of Mitt Romney (who everyone assumes will get the Republican nomination) is probably now an inevitable disaster, not only for the US but for all of us. This general assessment attracted the following, from an American website called QED: