Give Us the Tools and We Will Finish the Job

One of Westminster's favourite hard-working families, the House of Saud, is set to keep calm and carry on with the beheading of four terrorists, possibly including three teenagers who have demonstrated insufficient respect for British values. International law prohibits capital punishment for crimes committed by under-eighteens, but the House of Saud shares the blithe, buccaneering attitude to international law that has helped to make Britain and Iraq what they are today. The deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme pointed out the moral and social advantage of decapitation by the better sort of Islamic fundamentalist: "Saudi Arabia’s use of the death penalty to silence dissent sends a chilling message to anybody who dares to speak out against the authorities." It appears that the terrorists in question are leftovers from January's batch of forty-seven similar undesirables, whose mass execution Her Majesty's Government found slightly disappointing; doubtless the new executions will be even less disappointing.