THE death of Kenneth Bigley will not bring down the Labour Government, nor persuade Tony Blair to resign.

The fact that we were fed a truckload of codswallop by a Prime Minister pledged to support George Dubya in his post 9/11 Middle East crusade won't either. That can be attributed more to the lack of any alternative than Mr Blair's leadership and image, seriously tarnished by events in Iraq.

No WMDs. The sexing up of Saddam's supposed 45-minute missile launch capability. The exhaustive report which concluded he posed no threat to the West, nor much of one to his Arab neighbours.

We all have our thoughts on the subject of Kenneth Bigley but the undeniable fact about his death is that he would still be alive had not Bush and Blair led us into an unwinnable war.

Much has been written and spoken about the Muslim extremists who killed Mr Bigley and the way they did it. Revulsion has led to his murderers being described as "inhuman", particularly by politicians of all hues.

What did they expect? Dialogue? Mercy? Decency, or a sanitised Western version of it. I think not. What Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and their team were dealing with are people who have been totally dehumanised. From childhood they have been exposed to extreme violence and death which politicians like Blair, Straw and Bush have never experienced, except on film.

As far as I know none of them has been the target of a helicopter gunship, or seen family and friends blown to pieces by artillery shells or bombs. That upbringing leads to a nihilistic view of life and the taking of someone else's as nothing to agonise over.

Driving a car bomb into an hotel, or boarding a bus or train with plastic explosives strapped to your body, cannot be interpreted as a plea for political dialogue, so why do Blair and Bush believe the escalating post-war violence in Iraq will somehow miraculously disappear before planned elections in January?

Do the words "snowball" and "hell" have any relevance here?

I believe that Kenneth Bigley's fate was sealed the moment he was captured. I don't believe he was ever going to be freed and the worldwide publicity generated by the videos of him chained, pleading for his life, was a cynical ploy used by his kidnappers to embarrass the Blair government. It succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.

Jack Straw has stressed that the British Government, through an intermediary, appealed to Mr Bigley's captors to show mercy and free him.

That revealed the lack of understanding, ignorance even, our politicians have of the people with whom they are now in deadly conflict.

Wasn't it the same Mr Straw who, as Home Secretary, closed all the registered pistol clubs in Britain in the wake of the Dunblane school massacre, claiming it would reduce gun-related crime?

I don't know if he's had much of a chance to check current statistics, especially, in Nottingham, where there's a shooting every week. Obviously the "cowboys" there weren't members of gun clubs and therefore didn't have to surrender their weapons.

Jack will get you next time, boys.