Berlusconi is now an obstacle to recovery

Writer William Congreve, who died in 1729, warned us that “heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned”.

The intervening centuries have confirmed this perceptive, if politically incorrect, assessment and it is more than interesting to speculate on how Congreve might describe the near-hysterical but predictable reaction of Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi to the decision by that country’s highest court to uphold his prison sentence for tax fraud.

Despite the ruling, Berlusconi, like so many minor tyrants, indulged prima donnas or demagogues before him, maintains his innocence, raging that his freedoms and integrity have been dishonestly undermined. These refutations, however, are as credible as his hair colour.