I have a question this morning ...

How much has the world changed in the last 300 years or so?

Communication is different, that's for certain, as words and thoughts that took weeks or months to convey are now dispersed in seconds ... nanoseconds ... over the planet. Transportation is different. We're cleaner than we used to be.

But how much have people changed? That's the better question.

In 1729, Jonathan Swift, at the height of his career at the time, published a pamphlet he called,"A Modest Proposal".

His "proposal" was that the poor in Ireland should sell their children to wealthy landlords to be eaten, thereby providing income for the poor, a delicacy for the rich, and cutting down on the numbers of future criminals, which these children ... if left uneaten ... would most certainly turn out to be.

Much of its shock value derives from the fact that almost the entire first half of the essay is written in a deadly serious style, describing the plight to which starving beggars have been subjected in Ireland, so that the reader is entirely unready for the "bombshell" that Swift drops when he states, still in an entirely serious tone:

"I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust".

Okay. That was 1729, and satire.

Today, 277 years later, an article appears in the Times Online with a modern equivalent, but insisting there's no satire involved.

I’ve come reluctantly to think, especially after the senseless killing of Tom ap Rhys Pryce, that perhaps some babies, in the public interest and to prevent them growing up to a life of violence, should be forcibly taken from their mothers and adopted.

Adopted, apparently, being akin to being braised or barbecued. I suppose there are some anti-adoption league members who'd agree with that, but I'm not sure even the most vociferous angry adult adoptee would be comfortable with thoughts of basting on a spit.

The murder of Tom ap Rhys Pryce was an especially brutal event, and there's no doubt the perps are less than disgusting examples of filth.

A solicitor was stabbed to death during a street robbery yards from his home, it has emerged, as police hunted two muggers who continued to attack him after he gave them what they demanded.

Tom Ap Rhys Pryce, 31, who worked for Linklaters, a leading corporate law firm, was repeatedly stabbed on his head, torso and hands as he tried to defend himself.

Yesterday detectives described the attack as "vicious, ferocious and gratuitous".

Continued ...