"I thought the convict Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti had escaped the noose. I shouted that he's escaped the noose, go down and look for him. I went down a few steps ahead of the others to see: I found out that his head had separated from his body."

---public prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi on the execution of two of Saddam Hussein's aides one of whom was decapitated by the hanging.

The British Prime Minister has said he completely supports the inquiry and he believes that the manner of the execution was completely wrong, but that should not lead us to forget the crimes that Saddam Hussein committed, including the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

So Tony is opposed only to the manner of the execution and not opposed to execution per se?

Way too late anyway Tony.

It has taken Gordon Brown a long time to decide to condemn the execution of Saddam Hussein. One suspects he decided to wait until the public's opinion had been decided on before venturing an opinion.

Mr Brown told BBC One's Sunday AM show the manner of the former Iraqi leader's hanging was "completely unacceptable".

The UK chancellor said he was personally against the death penalty, and he hoped lessons would be learnt from the mistakes made in Saddam's execution.

Many of us knew that the execution of Saddam Hussein was unacceptable from the beginning and Gordon Brown's late entry into the fold cuts no ice with anyone.

Too little too late Gordon.

Ken Livingstone for Prime Minister