PETER HITCHENS: Modish liberals wanted to keep Ian Huntley alive for years. And they call ME barbaric for backing the death penalty for heinous murderers like him

Is there anyone who isn’t happy that Ian Huntley is dead? There is nothing to be said in defense of Soham’s murderer, whose crimes are grave and heinous. But fashionable liberals hoped to keep him alive for many years.

Such people fought to escape the death penalty. In my experience, they despise people like me who think it is right and just to execute some murderers.

To them, I’m cruel and barbaric for even thinking this.

So who is the barbarian now? Without going into the details of Huntley’s recent death, this was neither fair, civil, nor legal. But this happened thanks to the policies of smug liberal reformers who thought they were good.

There are also people like Huntley who are happy that prisoners have to live in fear.

Brian Reade, a left-wing columnist, wrote in 2000 that he wanted the murderer of an eight-year-old girl, whose name I will not mention, to be kidnapped and killed by a man whose name I will not mention in case it gives anyone an idea.

Mr Reade said the death penalty was ‘civilized society sinking to the level of the immoral’.

This ‘civilised’ Leftist said that the death penalty was ‘too good’ for the little girl’s murderer, even though he had not been caught yet.

He argued: ‘A life spent avoiding putting razor blades in your food, needing an armed guard every time you shower, fearing every night that your throat will be cut tomorrow is a more appropriate punishment.’

Mr. Reade got his wish. The girl’s killer has been repeatedly slashed or stabbed by other inmates since being sentenced to at least 40 years in prison. It’s hard to imagine this will stop.

But these are happening in prisons run in our name, in the name of His Majesty the King.

It is complete nonsense to think that this can be prevented under current conditions. I think it will get worse.

In my opinion, this is an abject failure. Justice is not revenge. We have justice precisely so that people do not take revenge, so that those who obey the law and those who consider breaking the law respect authority.

Any serious justice system should have the authority to apply and use this against people like Huntley. And with that – before you try to tell me – we’ll have to go back

to strong independent juries of mature adults and unanimous verdicts as willing to acquit the innocent as they are to convict the guilty.

The joy of black and white drama

Jessica Reynolds in Barbara Taylor Bradford’s legendary bestseller A Woman Of Substance

Sometimes we all need to enjoy something as subtle as a theme park, a cheeseburger, or Barbara Taylor Bradford’s famous bestseller A Woman Of Substance.

There isn’t a single nuance in the new TV adaptation. Aristocrats are evil and cynical; Poor and honest people are poor and honest. They are all very beautiful.

I don’t know if I can last until the last bucket, but it’s kind of enjoyable to remember a time when old-fashioned class hatred and snobbery were our biggest social problems.

I must have been one of the last surviving people to travel on the old Oxford-Cambridge railway, one of the few east-west lines in our entire system. Even the terrible Dr Beeching didn’t want to shut it down. But Labor Prime Minister Harold Wilson mysteriously did so in 1968.

People very quickly began to realize that this was a big mistake. Only the road lobby was pleased. However, it takes many years to repair a destroyed railway.

Nearly 60 years later only part of the line has been rebuilt. So you can get from Oxford to Milton Keynes. Only you can’t do it. Although almost 500 days have passed since the new line became ready for use, it has still not been opened.

The magnificent new station at Winslow has yet to accept a single passenger. Security for the vacant facility costs a fortune.

As far as I can determine, this madness is caused by the Ministry of Transport (which has an ancient obsession with this issue) and does not want to have guards on new trains. Unions say this is the last moment to make such a change. They point to recent incidents in Huntingdon in which a passenger went berserk on a train.

Whoever is right, it’s crazy to have 50 miles of beautiful new unused track on a major route costing billions of dollars.

Open now.

Hereditary peers were better than backbenchers

There is a strong case for abolishing so-called ‘elected’ MPs. There is no such thing as eliminating hereditary peers. But Labour’s 2024 manifesto incorrectly claimed hereditary was ‘untenable’.

As is often the case in modern politics, what almost everyone believes is the exact opposite of the truth. Members of parliament are chosen from a list of loyalists by secret party gangs for safe seats. hacks. They are elected to obey party leaders, especially when the party is in government. Official bullies, known as whips, ensure that they comply and severely punish them if they do not.

Have you ever wondered why MPs are suddenly dragged into scandal and excluded from the election? Now you know.

They owe their salaries and futures to ruthless party bosses. They are completely unfit for their primary duty, which is to hold the Government to account. They are slaves of the Government. They even try to place an order.

Hereditary peers, on the contrary, may owe their titles to Henry VIII or Charles II. But Henry and Charles are very, very dead and can have no influence over them. Such peers could and did laugh at the whip of the party. As a result, they could think, act and speak without fear or favor.

This is why the ‘democratic’ House of Commons abolished the right of hereditary peers to sit in Parliament. That’s why there is so little real opposition to this outrageous measure.

It’s obvious when you think about it. But who thinks these days?

Definitely not ‘elected’ MPs.