If that piece of elementary information has been circulated among the Conservative leadership, no member of the high command has taken the advice to heart. Perhaps Mr Ancram can be excused his moment of absurdity. Ancram was only embarrassingly silly. Liam Fox, responding to Alan Milburn's statement on the Bedford mortuary scandal, performed the difficult trick of being simultaneously ridiculous and repellent. It was a moment for compassion, not confrontation.
Politicians do well to avoid piety.
But they ought to cultivate common sense. Fox should have expressed his sympathy with the relatives and his willingness to wait for the report Milburn promised. Instead, he tried to turn the occasion into a party political broadcast. It is easy enough to guess how the television audience reacted. Even the least fastidious must have felt nauseating disbelief that he could so misjudge the mood of the moment.