Prime Minister Guided by Voices

Linda Smith (1958-2006)

Sometimes things happen which just leave you speechless. The death of comedienne Linda Smith this week was one. It’s one of those events where anything you say seem like rather trite platitudes. Then something else happens and it just brings into sharp relief what a loss it is. The Prime Minister will, on ITV tonight, reveal that the decision to invade Iraq with love, compassion and white phosphorus was guided by a voice speaking to him which he believes is God. The death and pain will be judged by a higher authority. Obviously it wasn’t a Satanic voice because Satan would probably have suggested umm… I don’t know how this judgement will arrive. In the Old Testament God would make his displeasure clear by sending a plague against the offending tribe. If only God sent a clear message by sending some terrible virus westwards.

Linda Smith, president of the British Humanist Association, would have had so much to say about this, though it might have been difficult to hear amid the laughter. There’s a tribute revisiting some of her highlights on the News Quiz available for the next week. If you listen to one thing this week, then this should be it. It’s a pity there’s no MP3 version for download.

Also on Radio 4, if you’re quick, you can catch the opening episode of Small Gods, a dramatisation of the Terry Pratchett novel. The conversions of TP’s books to radio are never as funny as reading the books, but often they’re not bad. If you haven’t read Small Gods, then its a story of how dogma can be mistaken for religion. The story concerns the invasion of a country across the desert on the orders of someone claiming to be guided by faith. It’s usually filed under ‘fantasy’. Episode Two is online from Tuesday.