Fencing

It's not often that I find myself agreeing with the Daily Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman but I found I was this morning. He wrote about Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's announcement that his Government would lead an international push to end capital punishment globally. The timing is interesting - coming only hours after the men convicted for their part in the 2002 Bali Bombing (in which nearly 90 Australians were killed) were executed by firing squad. Piers Akerman wrote: "the timing of this mission reeks of gutlessness, hypocrisy and political opportunism". While I would not have put it quite that strongly, I had wondered about the timing - especially as, understandably perhaps from a political standpoint, the Rudd Government did not seem to be campaigning against the death penalty for the Bali Bombers. This is not the forum for a debate on capital punishment but it does seem that it is a very personal issue which everyone needs to take some time to think about and reach their own conclusions rather than simply following the party line of the Government of the day.