I think Lord Acton was wrong: power doesn’t corrupt. It lobotomises. Consider Michel Platini, for example. Gifted footballer, intelligent analyst of the game, articulate opponent of Lennart Johansson when campaigning to be UEFA President, complete moron as soon as he’s elected.

My evidence for this slur? His speech awarding the 2012 European Championships to Poland and the Ukraine, and more specficially this:

“Today Poland and Ukraine have been chosen by the Uefa executive committee to host Euro 2012 and they are surely a worthy winner.

However there are no losers today, rather only bids that have not won this time round.“

This piece of nonsense immediately put me in mind of the White House flak who called the failure to catch Osama bin Laden (remember him?) “a success that hasn’t occurred yet.”

Is there some PR firm out there pushing this as the latest cool way for politicians and bureaucrats to avoid using uncomfortable words like “loss” and “failure”?

Please don’t tell me we’ll soon be hearing that there are actually no poor people in the world, only millionaires who haven’t got rich yet. No starving people, only fat people who haven’t eaten yet. No collective denial of global warming, only an acceptance that hasn’t occured yet.

Maybe soon there will be no free thinkers at all — only future politicians who haven’t been lobotomised yet.