Death Dreams..

At the moment Saddam Hussein was dying I, newly retired to bed, was dreaming of another death sentence - my own.

On a trip to Ireland I had, my dream told me, failed to pay a parking ticket for which, I learned from a letter on my arrival home, the due penalty of the law was death. Even in the wild logic of dreams this seemed a tad harsh, but one's law-abiding self could only accept that this was proper and inescapable legal process, howsoever unpleasant the consequences in person.

The day of my execution dawning I noticed in the hall appointed for the matter three other people lined up for judgement. This judgement was the final of some reality television programme and - as ever with these things - the audience vote was the crucial decider. The compere duly with much exaggerated pomp announced who had won - or in this case most definitely lost - a mild looking man in the middle. He was called upon to be hanged at once and what struck the dreaming observer as most odd, was that the other two were required to remain and watch.

Someone then passed by to let me know that I would not - as this fellow - be hanged, but crushed between two huge blocks of stone, squashed flat indeed, reduced to but atomic thickness. It was this cruel method, rather than the fate itself, against which I immediately rebelled. Suddenly flight was not just an option it was an imperative. I would not be crushed alive. I would escape to the only possible place of refuge - back to Ireland!

Not, you might reasonably argue, the most obvious choice of sanctuary - to the one country that might reasonably be most interested in tracking one down. The border though was but a step or two through the woods and so off I shot.

Ireland as ever was wonderful, quite magical indeed in the dream: hotels full of dancing chambermaids, streets lined to cheer a Royal visit from Prince William, and a lake lying on the slope of a hill without over-spilling. One sensed one had to move fast to keep ahead of the invisible chasers bent on arrest in the name of a terrible law. But that hardly mattered as life that moment was such fun.

Awaking, the news comes through that Saddam Hussein has been hanged. He and his Maker have had then their meeting, and that is between the two of them.

Iraq, I and the rest of the world must now live with the consequences.