The death penalty

We don't have the death penalty in the UK anymore. The last man sent to the gallows over here was in 1964; the last woman, Ruth Ellis, in 1955.

Truthfully, the death penalty is an abhorrent idea.

But isn't it sometimes just necessary? Isn't it?

I don't often find myself between a rock and a hard place. But this does it to me every time. What to do?

I've spent some time here in recent weeks writing about the attacks on goth couple Sophie Lancaster and Robert Maltby. Both were kicked into a coma. She died. It seems only right that I keep documenting the story.

Two teenage boys have been found guilty in court of her murder. Here they are, on the right. I can't say I wish them anything other than death. I would like it to be a long, drawn-out, painful death.

I wish the same thing upon this chap, too, who so enjoyed killing his 24-year-old victim that he got his girlfriend to take pictures of him next to the corpse afterwards.

Can you really tell me, in the face of indisputable evidence, that there is any real alternative but to rid ourselves of such worthless specimens? They literally do not deserve to live.

General stuff that might interest you

I'm currently loving this, at my friend Candy's blog.

Meanwhile, Wife tells me that the British government doesn't want a worldwide abolition of the death penalty. Click to find out why. It involves America, of course.

And I've also put a couple of new film reviews up at Such As They Are, so why not check 'em out if you haven't already?

A rack’s a dam and all that stuff

We all knew it was going to happen, of course, but the execution of Saddam Hussein has finally come to pass.

President Bush, we are told, was woken from his sleep (he went to bed at 9pm West Texas time) to hear the news. Wouldn't you think that as leader of the free world he might have stayed up a couple more hours for this momentous occasion? An occasion that has come around due to Bush Jr's illegal war-mongering, invading a country on false pretenses, solely to take revenge on the man who wanted to assassinate the first President Bush.

It's no secret that I think Bush is a cunt. Ditto Blair. A prize pair of cunts, the two of them. And it should go without saying that I have no love for Saddam. He was not a nice man. Did he deserve this fate? Well, maybe yes, maybe no.

Say what you like, though, he went to his death like a fucking hero. And that's how he'll be remembered. Those last few minutes of his life that we've all seen on the news today will live forever. We can only hope that we meet our own deaths with such courage.

And speaking of being remembered... Former Labour party minister Tony Benn said on the 2pm news here today that Blair will be remembered only for doing whatever Bush said. In other words, he will be remembered for being Bush's bitch. What a legacy.

We are the West. We bring freedom and liberty to oppressed nations.

If I may borrow from a film I recently watched: "Stuff it up your arse for nothing, and fuck off while you're doing it."

The Ace of Spades, the Ace of Spades

Ah, just when you thought things could barely get any worse in Iraq, they give Saddam the death penalty. He is to be hanged for crimes against humanity.

Fuck me, it's sure to be mayhem over there in the coming days, isn't it? I mean, isn't it? Is this not a no-brainer?

Wife and I were talking about this over breakfast this morning, before they had passed the sentence, and we were saying how strange it is that Baghdad has become synonymous with all these terrible things over the past few years. Sure, Saddam was in power for 35 years, but we in our insulated cocoons knew little of what was going on. As children, we saw Baghdad as this wonderful, magical, exotic city of flying carpets and beautiful palaces. Now look at it. It's a great shame.

I don't know how I feel about Saddam being sentenced to death. I'm not really against the death penalty, truth be told, in cases where there is absolutely no question over someone's guilt of horrific crimes against people. That said, it's easier to feel that way in a country that doesn't use it. All I'm thinking right now is that it seems a barbaric thing to do, and death by hanging more so than lethal injection or firing squad, the latter being Saddam's preferred choice. In the meantime, of course, he's appealing. Well, wouldn't you?

Of course, I would add to this that the whole thing is bullshit. While Saddam has rightly been found guilty of heinous acts, the fact remains that this whole thing never would have happened if the US-led war had not gone ahead, which it shouldn't have on the reasons that were given. Nobody actually gave a fuck while he was killing people, and yet as soon as someone lied about WMDs, we were there like a shot. Ends justify the means? Maybe. But it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

Anyway, whenever the death penalty is on the agenda, I find myself thinking of the following song.


"Let Him Dangle", Elvis Costello

Bentley said to Craig, "Let him have it, Chris."
They still don't know today just what he meant by this.
Craig fired the pistol, but he was too young to swing,
So the police took Bentley and the very next thing
Let him dangle.
Let him dangle.

Bentley had surrendered, he was under arrest,
When he gave Chris Craig that fatal request.
"Craig shot Sidney Miles, he took Bentley's word,"
The prosecution claimed as they charged them with murder.
Let him dangle.
Let him dangle.

They say Derek Bentley was easily led.
Well, what's that to the woman that Sidney Miles wed?
Though guilty was the verdict, and Craig had shot him dead,
The gallows were for Bentley, and still she never said,
"Let him dangle,
Let him dangle."

Well it's hard to imagine it's the times that have changed
When there's a murder in the kitchen that is brutal and strange.
If killing anybody is a terrible crime,
Why does this bloodthirsty chorus come round from time to time?
Let him dangle.

Not many people thought that Bentley would hang,
But the word never came, the phone never rang.
Outside Wandsworth Prison there was horror and hate
As the hangman shook Bentley's hand to calculate his weight.
Let him dangle.

From a welfare state to society murder,
"Bring back the noose" is all that is heard
Whenever those swine are under attack,
But it won't make you even,
It won't bring him back.

Let him dangle.
Let him dangle (string him up).