A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

This is how reformers are treated in Iran:

Iran's former president was set upon by an angry stick-wielding mob today amid celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on the streets of Tehran.

The attack on Mohammed Khatami came just two days after the reformist cleric announced he would be running against the hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June's presidential elections.

Mr Khatami, then a little known cleric, came to global attention when he was elected to the presidency in 1997, capturing almost 70 per cent of the vote. Succeeded in 2005 by Mr Ahmadinejad, he blamed hardline elements in the clerical establishment for obstructing his reformist agenda.

During the revolutionary celebrations, attackers waving sticks approached the cleric, shouting "Death to Khatami. We do not want American government."

I might be able to accept this kind of nonsense a little easier if it were representative of the Iranian people. But it is not. It so emphatically is not. And that is the tragedy of the past 30 years; the Iranian people have been regularly and consistently saddled with a government and with a leadership class that is utterly unworthy of the nation it seeks to lead.