I confess to having been moved by Gordon Brown's words on the death of Ivan Cameron.
Yet here was a man I dislike, speaking of a child unknown to me, the offspring of a man I despise.
I have to warn myself, this is a politician speaking, so there is always a subtext. I recall Claude Cockburn's unspoken question when interviewing politicians -"Why is this bastard lying to me?"
A gent going by the name "Sabretache" places Brown's words in a wider context -

Genuine sorrow is the only humane response to the news of the death of Ivan Cameron and, like the Prime Minister, I too offer sincere condolences to David and Samantha Cameron on their tragic loss.

But watching Gordon Brown's statement in the Commons yesterday I could not help but note that, in the strange, cocooned, self-righteous and self-absorbed moral universe we inhabit in this country, some children are more precious and some parents' 'unbearable sorrow' more worthy of empathy than others.
Brown said:
"Every child is precious and irreplaceable and the death of a child is an unbearable sorrow that no parent should ever have to endure."
Quite so; but where were his words of condolence about the preciousness of the 450 children so recently killed by the Israeli military in Gaza? Or the unbearable suffering of their parents? and all in the worthy cause of self-defence we are told - so that's alright then.

Frankly, the grossness of the double standards make me sick.