[montag813]

This is Straw's finest hour. Message to the French: your lying, obfuscations and cynicism is not going to work anymore. We've kicked your arse for nearly a thousand years - a diplomatic skirmish like this is nothing in comparison. You will lose, and look more the fools for losing.

That's all well and good. So why the March 17 deadline? To give the Marxist forces even more time to mobilize against his fragile government?

[Miss Marple]

Looking up St. Patrick (his day is March 17) I find that he is also the patron saint of Nigeria, engineers, and excluded people.