Our Lord David Shayler

It's not every day someone thinks they're God, and even less frequently do these folks get any media coverage - most just end up in the nearest nut house.

But things are different if you're an ex-spy, alleged whistle blower and jailbird. Such is the pedigree of Mr David Shayler, who, in an interview with More4 News, last night announced that he was God.

Strangely, this revelation doesn't seem to have excited a great deal of interest in the Almighty's more conventional representatives - there are no reports of the Archbishop of Canterbury hurrying over for a quick natter. I do not propose to comment on Shayler's loaded question: "What I'd say to people is: Do I look mentally ill? Do I sound mentally ill? "

So, is he God? If he is, it would have been handy to keep him in the secret service, wouldn't it? Most parties to a conflict claim to have some form of supernatural backing, but very few can actually produce the Deity in question. The best Al Queada can do is a mangy pic of Osama Bin Laden in a cave somewhere - imagine the propaganda potential if we could trot out the Man himself, complete with MI5 ID!

And, of course, when he's not busy dealing with the knotty problems of world peace, famine, flood, Gordon Brown and getting Middlesborough into the UEFA cup final, there's always the lecture circuit to fit in.

Shayler's already pretty busy in that respect, and it remains to be seen if his new-found divinity will leave him with enough spare time to cope with demand, although I suspect it probably will.

As I've already documented on this blog, I'm not a religious kind of guy. But that was before. Now Our Lord David Shayler has revealed himself, I know exactly who to complain to, and believe me I'm going to make the most of it. A few Commandments on the subject of Smoking bans, Health Fascists and Environmental Zealots wouldn't go amiss, for starters!

Billy Seggars.