Politicians doubtful about their current standing will be even more worried following this week's Church of Ireland General Synod in Belfast. On Monday, an amendment to the Book of Common Prayer was dropped. It had proposed that the line "O Lord, guide and defend all our rulers" be updated to read "O Lord, guide and defend all politicians". Honorary secretary Canon Des Harmon said he was withdrawing it because of recent events. The next day, when a speaker wondered aloud how many of those found corrupt would go to jail, he was answered with a spontaneous "none" from the churchmen in the Waterfront Hall. Whereupon the then chairman, Archbishop of Dublin Dr Walton Empey, said he had recently read somewhere that "`the 99 per cent of corrupt county councillors give the rest a bad name". Much laughter.