While the 15 British sailors and marines snatched by Iran were held captive, demonstrators took to the streets demanding their execution. When blindfolded early in their ordeal, the captives, hearing the cocking of guns, became convinced they were about to be shot.

Less extreme voices in Iran called for them to be put on trial. The almost-certain outcome would have been years in a foreign jail. In the event, within a fortnight all 15 were back with their families. But instead of simply counting themselves damned lucky they have cashed in with lucrative deals to sell their "stories".

Every word of the opprobrium heaped upon this arrangement is justified. Indeed, if there is a single positive feature of the episode it is that the widespread disgust felt at transforming this military incident into a money-making opportunity demonstrates that, even in an age of weakened morality, there remains a sense of right and wrong. That this appears absent from Tony Blair's Government, which approved the deal, is no surprise at all.

What is surprising is that no one closely involved - captives, Government, media - seems to have thought through the consequences of a future similar incident. The voices of those calling for execution or imprisonment would be greatly strengthened. Even the most moderate would be inclined to say: "We're not letting you go this time, to return to the West and deny your confessions.''

Those fat cheques now coming the captives' way could be the death warrant of the next hostages.

Triggered by the revelation that he ignored well-informed warnings of the terminal damage that his tax raid on pension funds would have on final-salary pension schemes, a storm of a different kind has been raging over Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Amazingly, Brown avoided comment on the issue for five days, during which various minions acted as his mouthpiece. Not until he was virtually obliged to appear in public - joining Tony Blair to launch New Labour's local elections campaign - did he speak up for himself. This is the man who would be our leader.

Few exhibitions have been better named. The Hidden History of the Dales, now on view in the Dales Countryside Museum at Hawes, explores the story of black and Asian people in Yorkshire's most popular national park. I don't think I've ever seen a black face in the Yorkshire Dales, and even in the southern dales, close to Leeds and Bradford, the sight of an Asian is a rarity.

Meanwhile, across in the Moors, Lord Clark of Windermere - dear old David Clark, retired MP for South Shields, rewarded for his (New) Labour loyalty with the chairmanship of the Forestry Commission - has just opened a new Visitor Centre in Dalby Forest. It boasts every conceivable green asset, from rainwater-flushed toilets, through solar panels and a wind turbine, to a counter fashioned from recycled mobile phones. Pity that in general appearance it better suits a modern business park than a national park.

The magnificent Easter weather revealed spring in all its burgeoning loveliness. As the opening words of my favourite spring poem, by Gerard Manley Hopkins, have it: "Nothing is as beautiful as spring.'' Adapting later lines in the same poem just a little I say too: "Have, get before it cloy, all this juice and all this joy.''