Give a politician a bad name and hang him, we might have said, taking a variation of the old English adage, affording a reprieve for our canine friends. For sure, in the real world, dogs need much less consideration and empathy than their colleagues in parliament, and practice has shown us that it is these latter that will always hanker after a favourable press even when their actions are deplorable.
But then I incline to take some of what I have been made to lap up with a ladle of salt, for sometimes you do not know what leg to stand on. Is it not the Bard who taught us to ask the question “What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet (Romeo and Juliet, 2.2).
