Posted on 12/14/2005 2:06:06 PM PST by HHKrepublican_2
LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he "strongly" opposed the death penalty but warned it was wrong to equate the human rights situtation in the US with that in countries such as China simply on the grounds of the number of executions carried out. ADVERTISEMENT
Answering a weekly session of questions in parliament a day after the controversial execution in California of former gang leader Stanley "Tookie" Williams, Blair said: "There is a difference between Europe and America on this issue.
"There always has been and always will be as long as the death penalty remains in the USA," he said when asked whether he was aware that 97 percent of the world's executions took place in China, Vietnam, Iran and the United States.
We luv ya Tony but on this subject please sit back have yourself a large cup of STFU!
Fine, I guess Britain won't have the death penalty then.
Gee thanks Tony! With friends like this...... I'm not one for polls, but I bet if a poll of the British were taken, an overwhelming majority would be in favor of the death penalty.
Blair does go on to say there is a difference with the US death penalty policy as opposed to say - Iran, North Korea, or China.
It is the rule of law that applies. Everyone living in the United States knows there are certain crimes punishable by death. In a free society such as the United States, everyone is free to do as they choose as perscribed by law. If you choose to break the law, you have also chosen to accept the consequences of breaking that law. It is not left to the whim of a dictator.
Wonder how many in England sitting on those subway cars when the bombers backpacks filled with nails and c-4 misfired wish the bombers would like to see the bombers put to death.
England will get the death penalty. When the clerics who will eventually run the country start choping off heads in public squares.
And the hammer falls and strikes the nail dead center!!
"There always has been and always will be as long as the death penalty remains in the USA."
Tony's a little clouded on his history. Britain only became fully abolitionist in 1998. Before that, military offences were still punishable by the death penalty. So the "always has been and always will be" is really only a matter of a few years."
Americans execute ruthless killers after a trial and numerous appeals. Europeans euthanize innocents--helpless elderly, the terminally ill, and defective babies without a second thought. Isn't Britain's health service rationing care and denying it to terminally ill elderly? And they think we're the barbarians?
Quite difficult to do that to a suicide bomber.
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