First published in Column 8 on the 14th August,1991

 

Back in 1981, a marvellous phrase was sprung on the nationby one Peter ThomasMahon. He said, amongst other things, that some of the Erebus evidencewas ‘an orchestrated litany of lies.’

Because the phrase so hit the mark, it perhaps had the seedsof self-destruction inherent in it. In fact, now that every writer and his brotheruses it to describe all manner of things from a schoolboy fib to a prisoner’splea, its value has plummeted fur...