The trouble is, Ian, that, as we all know, irony can be a dangerous, two-edged, own·petard kind of weapon in controversy.

The conviction that all change is for the better, all 'progress' [a ?-begging term in itself!] beneficent, is of course disputable. It is arguable {I am not necessarily arguing it, merely stating it to be a possible postulation} that absolute abolition of any kind of capital punishment in any circumstances was a step too far along the 'progressive' road. Some think so here; and it is policy in states which it would be foolhardy to denounce as 'less advanced'!

~M~