A couple of years back I planned a new running scenario on PooterGeek: Tora-Bora-nation Street. The idea was simple: Tony Blair and the rest of his family would drop into the local Corrie-style corner shop from time to time and I would depict their developing relationship with the new proprietors—with the Blairs unaware that the people now running the place were in fact Osama Bin Laden and his second-in-command.

There would have been many a rib-tickling moment as Osama had to hide his satellite phone from clueless Special Branch men behind stacks of Daily Mails, Bin Laden’s deputy failed miserably in his attempts to develop a Cape Fear intimacy with Blair’s daughter, and Cherie placed orders for bizarre New Age magazines.

I emailed a bunch of my regulars and asked them whether they thought the idea was in bad taste or racist or just not funny and they all replied encouragingly. But in the end I decided not to do it.

Today I was shocked to see a thread on Comment Is Free where some of the comments were worth reading and it made me think I might have been over-cautious.