The reaction of the English left-liberal press to the recent death of the communist cokehead prole and Argentine football idol, Diego Maradona, is called into question by Theodore Dalrymple in his The Critic column.

He was a tragic figure, a man who did not put the fruits of his natural talent to a use that brought him much happiness. The tragedy was in the choices he made and in their consequences, by comparison with the choices that he might have made. The fact that they were his choices is what made his life tragic. If he had contributed nothing to his addiction or to his private life, he would no more be a tragic figure than is a broken vase or a punctured tyre.