As part of the BBC’s Violence Season, in last night’s Horizon, How Violent Are You? Michael Portillo investigated what makes ordinary people commit extreme acts of violence and explored the fine line between control and aggression.

I’m not sure Portillo was the best person for the job, given he’s not ‘ordinary’ – he’s a pillock, and an upper class pillock at that – but nonetheless, Horizon sent him off to Bolivia to take part in Tinku, an annual “violence ritual” where men, women and children beat seven colours out of each other.

This seems to be a ritual that’s replicated on the streets of the UK at about 3am on most weekends, so maybe he’d have been better going off to the middle of Camden on a Saturday night and saved us license payers the cost of shipping him off to the Bolivian Andes… Read more & comment »