Batman strikes again

A protester for “fathers’ rights” wearing a Batman costume got into the grounds of Buckingham Palace (one of the Queen’s tied cottages) and scaled the front wall, upon which he placed a banner advertising his grievances. Big deal. But you would think from the hysterical reaction of the British media (lead item on the BBC Ten O’Clock News for well over five minutes) — closely followed by hysterical politicians — that (a) the entire fabric of civilisation had been rent asunder, and (b) that he had actually threatened the Queen. In fact, the lady in question was far away, taking one of her interminable holidays on one of her vast estates (Balmoral in the Scottish highlands). I am reminded of Thomas Macaulay’s observation that “We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.”