"..Down at the bus station

Shark grins and sandpaper conversation

..They are predators moving in their endless days

..Never going to bring them freedom from their pain

..Wild shadows, acid verbs"

(From Bruce Cockburn's song: "Loner")

The Two Kingdoms (or: Birds of a feather?)

Tangentially relevant to my comments about eager handshakers and handshake refusers:

This:

"I'm not hiding any secret about the Saudi position. We were reluctant until today. And if not for the Arab consensus we felt today, we would not have decided to go," he said.

Asked if he would shake the hand of Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, he said: "We're not ready to be part of a theatrical performance . . . We're not going there to shake anyone's hand or to demonstrate feelings we don't have."

This reminded me of another recently-published refusal to extend any good will towards the Jewish state. I recently read here that a hoped for visit by Prince Charles to Israel was deemed unfeasible, as follows:

"...Alderton wrote: "Safe to assume there is no chance of this visit ever actually happening.."

Why?

Because "Acceptance would make it hard to avoid the many ways in which Israel would want (Charles) to help burnish its international image."

Contrast this unnecessarily acerbic cold-shoulder with this handshake:

Gordon Brown and his "friend" King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia shook hands yesterday outside No 10 Downing Street.

And you may see what kind of picture emerges.