Come out into the open.

Not surprisingly, many calls over the weekend for the reintroduction of capital punishment. I must declare an interest - my attitude was crystalised by the Craig/Bentley case back in the 50's, and I am implacably opposed. But trying to look at it logically, would Friday's events have been prevented if capital punishment was in place? This supposes that, before the person responsible pulled the trigger, they would have stopped and considered the consequences - I leave you to decide how likely that scenario is. So why the call for bringing back the rope (or lethal injection, or whatever)? Let's bare our souls - this has nothing to do with justice, and everything to do with revenge. That's not to say that the desire for revenge is not a perfectly understandable emotion, but let's be clear about it, and not try to disguise it by dressing it in more acceptable clothing.