Well, I’ve received more e-mails on this topic than on any subject on which I have ever written. As so often with Corner readers, they were (almost) all polite, even when they disagreed strongly with what I had to say (most did), and, even if they didn’t change my mind (they didn’t), I learnt a good deal. What’s more, it was difficult to disagree too much with this contribution to the debate:

” Can anyone explain what, exactly, was achieved by his killing?”

“He’s dead, Jim.”