Archbishop Vincent Nichols will be the new Archbishop of Westminster, UK. Damian Thompson, the Daily Torygraph's Catholic blogger and in-house Tridhead, who is hard to please, is for the most part -- quite pleased. The worst choice would have been Bishop Arthur Roche (as Damian made clear when he posted, mere days ago, that he thought Roche had it in the bag). The best would have been the other Nichols, Fr. Adrian Nichols, OP, but -- dream on.

As Thompson cogently remarks of V. Nichols in the comment section: "[T]he people who have wrecked the Church in this country [i.e. Britain] didn't want him to get the job."

P.S. (1) I am not Damian Thompson. If I had my own blog at The Daily Telegraph, would I write this? (2) I don't think whatever Damian Thompson tells me to think. I just find that I never disagree with him, and that he says things the way I wish I had said them. (Anglo just called: it wants its philia back.)