My GP father used to have a little rubber-tipped hammer for tapping patients’ knees to test the swiftness of their reflexes. Were he to rise from his grave and use that same device on the moral reflexes of Official England following the recent murder of Ann Widdecombe, he probably would diagnose his patient as dead.

For reflexes are not cerebral matters: their reactions are inbuilt and spontaneous. The absence of any immediate public outrage at the brutal murder, the apparent silence of King Charles and the failure of House of Commons to suspend business and go into mourning over the brutal slaughter of a harmless old woman, indicates that England is in dire trouble. 

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