Missing from the Shire

Absolutely no-one is stunned with the news from Northern Ireland today that Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson has come out of the closet and declared that he can no longer stand the mere "moderate" obstructionism of David Trimble's Ulster Unionist party and instead will join the extreme obstructionists of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party. Given that Donaldson has been spouting Paisley-like positions for years, it's perhaps understandable that, rather than deal with any substantive issue in this profile of him, this BBC article puts this Donaldson fact up front:

[Donaldson] rarely fluffs his lines, his timing is acute - he has even overcome the handicap of, in some people's eyes, resembling the singer Daniel O'Donnell.

And indeed, resembing a Donegal man would be quite a cross for someone like Donaldson to bear -- but confirm for yourself the resemblance via this (disturbingly soft focus) picture of O'Donnell on his official site. But as we looked at Donaldson's picture a few times, some other resemblance was coming to mind, and then it hit us -- he looks like Pippin from Lord of the Rings. He is, however, a much bigger fool than Pippin.