RECOMMENDATIONS from the US embassy in Paris for a military-style trade war against the EU and other countries opposed to GM crops targeted the wrong opponents. Feeding the masses cheaply is a good political move and many governments, including Britain’s, are well-disposed towards the Frankenstein foods which a hostile public will never willingly accept, despite grim suspicions that they could already be eating them.

Question and answer

SALMAN TASEER, governor of the Punjab, was shot dead by his own bodyguard for backing reform of Pakistan’s rigid blasphemy laws.  Mindful of the risk that he ran, Taseer had said earlier that if people like him did not stand up, how could others?  His death last week provided a tragic answer to his own question, but raised another: why the focus on Afghanistan and not Pakistan?

Ticket to ride

HUNGARY assumes the six-month EU presidency as it introduces censorship and attempts to tax the companies of member states, prompting doubts about its commitment to EU principles.  Like many former Eastern Bloc countries, Hungary – expecting the paternalism it was used to but without the rules – eagerly boarded the gravy train while forgetting that although the spoils at the other end are considerable, so too are the responsibilities.