Grinning like a…
I was taken aback by the UN official photo published today (available for a short time at the Guardian Digital Edition) — world leaders are all smiling, and all with such comfortable ease. The photographer, I thought, must have told them a really funny joke. In, er, 60 languages simultaneously.
Then I examined it more closely. There’s George Dubya, grinning like an idiot. Next to him, Vladimir Putin, grinning like an ex-KGB man who still might garrote you if say the wrong thing. And Tony Blair, grinning like Tony Blair always grins. And only then did I realise — how stupid can I be? — they’re grinning with such comfortable ease not because they’ve found something genuinely delightful, but because they’re all professional politicians. D’oh!
