A plea to Gaddafi. Can we have our guns back, please?
• So much has happened – a royal wedding, the killing of Bin Laden – that it is easy to forget about the crisis in Libya. And yet, as became clear after William Hague updated the Commons on Tuesday, not much has changed: Gaddafi is still there, and each day his grip seems tighter. Yesterday the international criminal court said it wants to indict him for crimes against humanity. Fewer questions being asked, too, about the extent to which we went out of our way to arm the tyrant, and that's a shame because some of the answers are quite entertaining. Given the ongoing hullaballoo, how many of the export licences to Libya have been revoked, asked the former armed forces minister Sir John Stanley. Eight, replied business minister Mark Prisk. What are they for? Well, they relate to items sent to Libya for exhibition purposes. And what were they? "Gun mountings, machine guns (one), sniper rifles, assault rifles, semi-automatic pistols, weapon-cleaning equipment, weapon sights, components for assault rifles, training small arms ammunition." Add in the "all-wheel drive vehicles with ballistic protection" and the devices we sent for military "decoying/detection/disposal/jamming", and one can see that this was a consignment well worth having in Tripoli. And why hasn't the licence been revoked? Because in that case we probably wouldn't get any of our weapons back, said Prisk.
• And as the situation in Syria grows worse, with the US condemning Bashar al-Assad's crackdown measures as "quite barbaric", the Red Cross barred from reaching the sick and injured, and foreign journalists banned, one wonders how we can impact on a worrying state of affairs. Only one man perhaps has sufficient "juice" to make a difference. Let us remind ourselves again that Peter Mandelson so enjoyed the time he spent with President Assad that afterwards he declared he really quite liked him, and said he was "a decent man doing a difficult job". If we are looking for an envoy, isn't Peter the very man to reason with him?
• And today's the day when Britain's voting system is likely to stay exactly the same. An event of momentous proportions. The fallout is likely to be significant. Ladbrokes says that after his cabinet tantrum, Chris Huhne is the clear 3/1 favourite to be the next cabinet member to leave. They are offering 2/1 that "any" Lib Dem walks away within 24 hours of the result. Fanciful, in the case of Huhne, perhaps; for having secured a red box, he doesn't seem the type for the backbenches. But then it is difficult to know what he'll do. Worth remembering that a few years back a luminary of our acquaintance shared a hotel room (strictly business purposes) with Huhne. They were allocated four fleecy towels. After one shower, Huhne used all of them. That does say something about him, even if it's not immediately clear what that something is. We shall see.
• Are the cares of office, meanwhile, weighing on Huhne's Con-Dem colleague, Tim Loughton? There he was yesterday, generally making an exhibition, causing Speaker Bercow to intervene to deadly effect. "The minister for children is under no obligation to behave like a child," was his rebuke. No obligation, Loughton might have replied; but in this job it helps.
• In stark contrast on this occasion is the behaviour of Louise Bagshawe, MP for Corby, who tweeted thus on the slaying of Bin Laden: "I should say, perhaps, that I am praying for Bin Laden's soul, which my faith says I should do. Rejoicing over closure, not death of a man." In the climate of tabloid bloodlust and hyperbole, whooping and cheering, such restraint does seem commendably brave.
• But then the world needs more plain speakers, and with the passing of Sir John Gielgud in 2000, we lost a champion. Examples abound in the new biography – John Gielgud, from Matinee Idol to Movie Star – by Jonathan Croall. He tells, for instance, of Sir John's encounter with a young actor who boasted that he had been invited to spend Christmas with the Oliviers. "But they don't even like you," protested Sir John. Ever the kindly mentor. Bless.