Strange times…
All the historical debates surrounding capital punishment in the UK have been made somewhat irrelevant this week as the extraordinary circumstances unfolded in London. A man was held down by police and summarily executed on a tube train. The fact that he has turned out to be Jean Charles de Menezes a Brazilian electrician, entirely innocent of any terrorist involvement underscores the terrible flaws in any shoot-to-kill policy. Such a policy is socially destabilising of British society as a whole, fulfulling the terrorists' aims to terrorise people cause hysteria and create conditions for increased conflict. If we are engaged in a war on terror, do you think we could perhaps have less terror not more? On this issue I wholeheartedly agree with the comments from John Rees the National Secretary for the Respect party:

"however horrific the bombings in London on 7th July and however important it is to secure the safety of the public, 'there can be no excuse for the police adopting a shoot to kill policy which guns down innocent people in cold blood. This is precisely the crime for which we hold the terrorists responsible. The police in a democratic society have a duty to act with higher standards. They should be trying to diminish the climate of fear, not add to it."