Bystanders to the row between John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, and Mark Malloch Brown, its deputy secretary-general, might be forgiven for thinking the latter had insulted the American people. In response to a speech that Mr Malloch Brown delivered in New York on Wednesday, Mr Bolton said it was "very, very grave mistake . . . to criticise the United States in such a manner". He also hinted it might jeopardise UN hopes of securing a new budget, which runs out at the end of this month.

In fact, Mr Malloch Brown's speech was a model of reasoned diplomacy. Barring a brief aside about the negative influence of conservative talk-radio hosts, the speech laid out a mainstream and timely case for America's leaders to balance their perfectly valid criticisms of the multilateral body with an acknowledgement of its benefits. Jim Leach, the Republican senator, made many of the same points at the same meeting. So why the spleen?