Light bedtime reading

This has been the working week, if not from Hell, then from somewhere nearby. Purgatory perhaps, now that the Pope has gone and abolished Limbo. To cheer me up Cathy bought me a little gift - Mark Thomas' polemic about the arms trade called As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela.

It sounds grim, and in places it is, but I'm enjoying reading something so passionate about an important topic for a change. I'm a third of the way through, but here are a few quotes that have made me laugh so far:

"For many in Old Labour, the day Blair dies is the day that Judas will be found muttering in the depths of Hell, 'I bet he comes and sits next to me.'"

"All we had to do was smile and lie, and not just little lies either - we had to lie like estate agents."

"To the best of my knowledge not even the most cap-doffing historian has dared to describe the British Empire as an 'ethical empire', although there is bound to be one out there somewhere, just as there is bound to be a Conservative Party leader who doesn't look like a smug twat, if only we could be bothered to look."

There's lots more, but you should really go and buy your own copy.