Tetchy Blair on the defensive over hanging of Saddam

As George Bush is hoping that the sentencing of Saddam to death might give him some sort of boost in the mid term elections, his greatest ally - Tony Blair - was finding himself in a very awkward position yesterday regarding the Iraqi court's decision.

The death penalty is outlawed in all EU country's and Tony Blair was left squirming as he tried to set out his position on the verdict.

Mr Blair was on the defensive over the gap between the sentence of the Iraqi authorities and his Government's opposition to capital punishment. After trying to hide behind the words of Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, a tetchy Mr Blair told reporters: "That is just enough, thank you very much. I happen to want to express myself in my own way if you don't mind." Eventually, he said: "We are against the death penalty, whether it's Saddam or anybody else."

This is a position that was reflected across the whole of the European political spectrum:

Romano Prodi, the Italian Prime Minister, who had lunch with Mr Blair at Number 10 yesterday, said: "Italy is against the death penalty. So even in such a dramatic case as Saddam Hussein we still think the death penalty must not be put into action."

Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister, said France and the EU were opposed to the death penalty and wanted to see it abolished worldwide. " So for purely ethical reasons, Saddam Hussein should not suffer the death penalty," he said. "But above all, you also have to think that the situation in Iraq is excessively worrying and we are on the brink of civil war."

The death penalty remains an anomaly in a country as culturally advanced as the US and aligns it with nations such as Iraq and Iran rather than with country's like Britain and Spain, who one would expect to the US's more natural social partners.

So whilst Bush is able to brag about Saddam's imminent execution, Blair can afford himself no such luxury as the people of Europe are of the opinion that killing is wrong, whether it is done by the individual or by the state.

Of course, we have only arrived at this impasse because Bush and Blair insisted that Saddam should be tried by Iraqis rather than the more sensible option of dispatching him to the Hague, which would have been a much more appropriate place to try someone for crimes against humanity.

Bush's natural distaste for all forms of internationalism rendered this option a non-starter and laid the groundwork for a trial that has largely been regarded as farcical. Saddam has not been tried by a group of his peers as most of us assumed, but instead by a series of judges, some of whom were instantly replaced if they were deemed to be too sympathetic to the accused.

By hanging Saddam, the coalition will instantly create a martyr to certain parts of the Iraqi populace. This is the worst of all possible outcomes and will probably only add to the unrest within an already deeply troubled country.

A far better option would have been to leave the old tyrant to rot in the Hague, powerless and impotent.

And then the rest of the planet could have concentrated on how to set about getting Bush and Blair to join him for the supreme crime against peace that was the war in Iraq.

Oh sorry, I'm forgetting, war criminals only come from the Balkans and the Middle East.

tag: Blair, Saddam, death penalty, death sentence, EU,