Opposition is no laughing matter.  Or is it?

I have been holed up in various less than salubrious locations in London this week on examining duties, but light relief has been provided by a number of stories emanating from across the Atlantic.

First off, a Republican party official gives a whole new meaning to the term “he is off hiking”. Mark Sanford, whom many have been tipping as a serious 2012 contendor, has admitted that he had gone AWOL to Argentina to conduct an extra-marital affair.

It seems that the GOP are following that unwritten rule that seems to apply to parties that lose power: let’s see how low we can go, let’s hit rock bottom, then start to pull ourselves together. In UK terms, think of Labour in the 1980s, or the Tories post Major. In the US we could apply this rule to the Democrats of the 1980s also—Michael Dukakis for President, anyone?

The New York Times has a great story on this here.