Essential logic

Old German joke, as retold by Sigmund Freud. A man borrows a kettle from his neighbour. When he returns it, the neighbour complains that it's got a hole in it. Don't look at me, says our man, I never borrowed your kettle. Besides, it was fine when I gave it back to you. I wish I'd never borrowed it anyway - it's useless, it's got a great big hole in it.

In other words, Don't blame me, I wasn't there. Well, OK, I was there, but nothing went wrong. Well, maybe something did go wrong, but it was like that already - nothing to do with me... Look, just don't blame me, OK?

Martin Kettle (you can groan now) is outraged that anyone should even think that the election was won by Labour and not by Tony Blair...

The rest is here; it's my first 'exclusive' (non-crossposted) contribution to the excellent new group blog The Sharpener.

Now, think on.