The Lib-Dem way

There is something particularly contemptible in Lib-Dem European parliament leader Chris Davies assuming a Eurosceptic veneer in the hope of boosting his party's electoral fortunes – not least when his party is expected to agree a motion in favour of a "yes" vote on the EU constitution at its conference in Bournemouth.

And this is the same Chris Davis who is telling delegates at the conference at Bournemouth that "I want the EU to be a superpower, an organisation with strength and authority able to speak with a single voice, and I want Britain to be at its heart."

But for sheer, stomach-churning nausea, there is very little that can compare with the sight of Charles Kennedy, preening himself on a veranda overlooking the beach-front, clebrating Kofi Annan's declaration that the Iraqi war was illegal and demanding that Blair publicly apologise for the war.

Mark Steyn, in his piece in The Sunday Telegraph puts this in perspective when he reminds us that Kofi Annan's grounds for illegality was simply that the liberation of Iraq did not conform to the UN Charter and therefore was "illegal".

"In Sudan", he writes, "the civilised world is (so far) doing everything to conform with the UN charter, which means waiting till everyone's been killed and then issuing a strong statement expressing grave concern".

As for Iraq, the UN system designed to constrain Saddam was instead enriching him, through the Oil-for-Food programme, and enabling him to subsidise terrorism. Given that the Oil-for-Fraud programme was run directly out of Kofi Annan's office, the Secretary-General ought to have the decency to recognise that he had his chance with Iraq, he blew it, and a period of silence from him would now be welcome.

And while Kennedy makes common cause with Kofi Annan, exuding enthusiasm for a UN role in Iraq, he might like to take note of the disgraceful behaviour of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire). Known as MONUC (UN Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo), it was recently revealed that MONUC soldiers had been raping and impregnating girls as young as thirteen years old in exchange for food. The MONUC soldiers are from Morocco and Uruguay.

As he prates about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, Kennedy might also have a closer look at his allies in the anti-war cause, such as the French who, as confirmed yesterday by The Sunday Telegraph, paid an Italian businessman to feed false documents to the British and American intelligence communities, alleging that Iraq was buying uranium cake from Niger – with the intention being deliberately to undermine the case for war.

As The Washington Times points out, this is the same country which was continuing to supply and arm Saddam Hussein's regime – a man who Chirac once welcomed as his "personal friend” – to the extent that as of last year, Iraq owed France an estimated $4 billion for arms and infrastructure projects.

Furthermore, the sales continued even as the US prepared for military action against Iraq. The need to safeguard this massive debt was one reason France opposed a military operation to oust Saddam, blocking US moves at a United Nations.

Yet all that, and more, passes by Mr Kennedy and his sickening crew as they parade their superior morality. Theirs is the Lib-Dem way, and also the European way… and they want us to share it. They can keep it.