Let’s get one thing straight — if I can still use that word without causing offence.

Contrary to recent publicity in the wake — yet again — of comments from Iris Robinson on the BBC’s Nolan Show, it’s not actually ‘Christians’ who oppose abortion. Sometimes it seems the world really has gone mad.

Take, for example, the case of Sir John Sawers, the new head of MI6, the UK’s spies abroad agency. It used to be that the holders of such posts guarded their secrecy to extreme limits. They certainly would not — as Sir John’s wife did — post personal details on social networking site Facebook.

Until a national newspaper alerted the security services — fills you with confidence in the spooks, eh? — millions of people were able to read about Sir John’s friendships and even view his holiday snaps.

His wife’s postings also gave details of where they live and work and where they went on holiday.

It wouldn’t take James Bond to track down the new chief of the Secret Intelligence Service.

Remember, MI6 was the agency primarily responsible for producing the intelligence document on which the decision to invade Iraq was based and which was sold to the gullible public as proving that Saddam Hussein had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction. Was that intelligence gleaned from some Iraqi Facebook or Bebo site? Makes you wonder.

And then there is Sarah Palin. Remember her, the moose-hunting hockey mom who once was poised to be vice President of the United States, except that the voters had the good sense to elect Obama and his running mate Joe Biden.

After eight years of George Bush the voters decided they had enough of politicians who were not clear on what was going on in their own country, never mind anywhere else in the world.

After the Republicans’ crushing defeat Sarah went back to the relative obscurity of being Governor of Alaska. But now she has theatrically resigned from that post amid rumours that she may be investigated over her links with a construction company to which she awarded a major contract.

Some speculation also suggested that her resignation was designed to clear the way for her to run for national office, perhaps even President, in the future. Only in America could such a possibility be even considered.

Fortunately, it appears that Sarah is disenchanted with politics — or is it the other way round? — and is going to bow out of the national consciousness altogether.

One man who has no intention of bowing out of the public eye is Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is hosting a G8 summit this week.

No doubt he will be photographed with the other leaders of the world’s major industrialised countries, but it is other snaps which people really want to see.

It is claimed that these pictures show the Italian leader with a number of young women, two of whom apparently are photographed kissing each other. Berlusconi has been under fire recently over his fondness for the company of young women and his long-suffering wife has demanded a divorce.

The prime minister was heckled unmercifully recently when he visited the disaster scene of a gas explosion. And people left homeless after the recent earthquake in Italy have accused him of not doing enough to help them.

Little wonder that Berlusconi is hoping to make a big impression on his fellow political leaders this week. He also wants to convince the Italian people that he is an effective politician.

But those photographs may yet come back to haunt him. Even the relatively liberal Italians can only stand so much from Berlusconi. To have him depicted as a joke politician more interested in the company of young women than in running an effective government could lead to his final downfall.