more champagne, your holiness?

It might interest you to know that not only is the Pope planning to visit the UK in September, but that despite being transported over in his gown and velvet slippers from his jewel-encrusted golden palace by luxury jet and limousine while flunkies fan him with ostrich feathers and feed him preserved larks' tongues and caviar from a silver platter, the British government has seen fit to stump up 20 million quid to finance the trip. Which of course means Joe Taxpayer, i.e. you and me.

Now you might be perfectly happy about this. On the other hand you might feel, as I do, that if the head of an enormously rich and powerful organisation is going to come over and tell us all about his imaginary magic friend and his imaginary magic zombie son who turns into Ryvita on request (oh, and that condoms give you AIDS), he might be expected to finance the trip himself, or at least draw contributions solely from those who actually believe this sort of insane drivel.

If you do feel this way, then you might want to pop over to the National Secular Society's website and put your name to their petition to the Prime Minister. Don't expect it to change anything in the short term; think of it instead as a little drip in a whole series of drips eroding the big rocky obstruction of unearned privilege and irrationality so that the cool clear torrent of cleansing sense and clarity can gush through. Christ, now I need a wee.