Daily Mail Comment: Mugabe must face action, not words

British ministers  -  who haven't even stripped Mugabe of his knighthood  -  say there must be an 'African solution' to his bloody tyranny in Zimbabwe. But why?

We didn't hear them demanding an 'Arab solution' to Saddam Hussein  -  and aren't Zimbabwe's sufferings our business far more than Saddam's outrages in Iraq?

President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, readies himself to kick a football into the crowd at an election rally in Banket, Zimbabwe, today

After all, it was our Foreign Office that created the monster Mugabe, handing him one of the most prosperous countries in Africa on its independence in 1980.

Since then, he has destroyed his country's economy, seizing land from efficient white farmers to enrich his henchmen.

Because of him, inflation in Zimbabwe is running at a million per cent, and eight in ten of the population are jobless and hungry. Because of him, a Zimbabwean's life expectancy is just 37.

Now this dictator flicks two fingers at the democracy we bequeathed him and declares that only God can oust him.

Oh, yes? Couldn't Britain and the free world give the Almighty a helping hand?

At the very least, we should freeze the bank accounts of Mugabe and his elite, ban them from travelling abroad and close our universities to their children. British companies, too, must surely be made to withdraw their business.

But isn't there an ultimate sanction too? Watching Foreign Secretary David Miliband wring his hands, you would think military action was wholly out of the question. But is it?

The fact is Mugabe's armed forces are fit only for murdering and raping defenceless women and children. They'd be no match for crack Western troops.

This paper is reluctant to interfere in other nations' affairs. But why was invading Iraq thought justifiable, while ending the genocide in a former British colony is said to be unthinkable?

The great gas swindle  

This summer, cheap North Sea gas is being exported to the Continent to be put into storage. Come winter, it will be sold back to us at grossly inflated prices.

Scandalous? You bet. But what do you expect, under a Government that has barely thought about our energy needs for 11 years?

As a Commons select committee has discovered, there are many other ways in which Europe's energy sector is rigged against UK consumers.

Competition between the hugely profitable big companies is almost nonexistent. Smaller firms offering lower prices are refused supplies. Meanwhile European governments jealously protect their own energy markets.

No wonder UK families face 40 per cent increases in their already ruinous bills.

The Mail believes strongly in free markets. But where vital utilities are concerned, our national interests must always come first.

Is anyone surprised that Britons get such a raw deal, when four of our big six energy suppliers are foreign-owned?

Rein in the BBC  

Strangling competition, the giant octopus of the BBC is spreading its publicly funded tentacles even further, with plans to offer a local video broadband service in 60 areas.

Haven't the corporation's empire builders done quite enough damage to Britain's independent radio sector, without wrecking our hard-pressed local and provincial newspapers, which provide such diversity and give much-needed stimulation to local democracy?