SADDAM HUSSEIN

COUNCILLOR TERRY KELLY

I try not to write about the same thing as my dad, keeping in mind that a lot of the people who read this blog also read my dad's, but, this time I couldn't leave it alone! On Saturday the Paisley Daily Express published an article about my dad, apparently slamming him for his comments on the hanging of Saddam Hussein, well they can slam me too because I agree with him!

It will come as no surprise to anyone I am sure but, I am against the death penalty, telling people that if they kill/rape/steal/think for themselves the state will kill them achieves nothing, you only have to look at the USA for evidence. In the states that use the death penalty are there no murders? No, are there no rapes? No! Capital punishment in all it's forms is barbaric and cruel, it makes the state the murderer and as such it makes every citizen no better than the person they seek to punish. I do not say this lightly I have relatives in America and I am aware of some of feelings of the American electorate to the death penalty but this does not make it right.

My dad was right to condemn the execution of Saddam Hussein and his colleagues recently executed, all of the main political players in Scottish politics have voiced similar opinions - including Blair and Brown for the Labour Party and Salmond of the SNP - so clearly the difficult questions are for Cllr McKay the leader of the SNP group on Renfrewshire Council who condemned the comments by my father , is he, like his predecessor Mr McFee, distancing himself from his leader? Is this a split in the SNP? you decide!