Fence sitting

Posted at 6.10pm UK time

I appear to be the only person in the British Politics corner of Twitter without a firm opinion on present events in Gaza.

Many people are screaming at me about the latest example of Israel's ongoing and heinous persecution of the Palestinian people. Others remind me in similarly strident terms that Israel has the right to defend itself and is anyway the only Western-style democracy in an otherwise benighted region. Hamas started it, they explain.

However, I have no opinion on what I am told are, in one way or another, events of the utmost moral and political importance.

Britain, my own nation, has more than enough problems to occupy my time, without me making the effort to learn about a problem so intractable and complex it has remained unresolved for about 4,000 years. Because of this, I am far too ignorant to have a view on present events in Gaza.

I wonder how many of those Britons convinced of their own judgements about the current conflict might secretly be in the same boat.