Idiots are not always easy to spot. This is unfortunate because idiots can often be dangerous.
Easier to spot fools can be viewed carrying out Jackass type stunts having uploaded their efforts on to the Internet. Or they can often be witnessed under the influence of various substances and flipping their cars over on a field on the programme Police, Camera, Action. Reckless people are not only dangerous to themselves, but also to others. At least in the above examples the stupidity is there to be seen.
Sadly it is not always straightforward. Switch on a news channel most days and you will witness the seemingly ordinary actions of a rather bland individual in a suit. Yet with the power he has, he has the potential to be the most dangerous pathogen in Britain.
I am of course talking about Sunday Supper favourite, the Prime Minister, David Cameron. It was fantastic to see him taking a well-earned break in Egypt following the recent political shifts there, mainly because while he is there Britain gets a well-earned break from his economic sledgehammer being wielded upon all of us.
Despite my hostility towards Cameron, I was actually naive enough to believe he might be out there doing some good, helping to bring down barriers between Britain and other parts of the world and assist Egypt in their transition towards a fully-functioning democracy. Our hero was doing nothing of the sort.
He was there with a group of businessmen, many of whom involved in the arms trade. While democrats around the world were watching from afar at the winds of change, the dyed-in-the-wool Tory realist was over there trying to exploit the situation for commercial gain.
The precarious economic situation here in Britain is no excuse for being so crudely opportunistic. There is no justification for even contemplating the idea of arming a country presently in a state of political flux. Who knows what shape Egyptian political change will take? Contemplating selling arms to a state currently going through transition to an unknown end is idiotic, reckless and dangerous.
Then again, maybe there is little expectation of Egypt evolving into a democracy. With the last Egyptian President removed and hope of an emerging democratic structure, you have to wonder who the businessmen were there to meet - presumably established elites.
While all this was going on, Britons were stranded in the middle of a similar revolt in Libya. The government was slow to act in organising their evacuation. This is no surprise when you consider that Cameron's mind was clearly elsewhere. This incompetence is to be expected from a government which brought us aircraft carriers with no aircraft.
Sometimes I wonder who I would rather have in the British driving seat. David Cameron, or a reckless idiot from Police, Camera, Action?
