Zimbabwe: The historic moment Britain must seize

Mugabe's corrupt, brutal rule has left his people on their knees. Life expectancy is just 37; two decades ago it was 60.

Skilled workers have fled the absurdity of 80 per cent unemployment and 100,000 per cent inflation.

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Mugabe's sinister "war veterans" have bludgeoned white farmers out of business, destroying the bedrock of the economy.

Last week, for a fleeting moment, it looked as if the 84-year-old thug might finally be on his way.

Diplomats said Morgan Tsvangirai, the brave and tenacious leader of the main opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had won last Saturday's poll.

They suggested negotiations had started for a transfer of power, and that Mugabe was about to make a historic statement. It always seemed too good to be true.

Last night it was business as usual, as the MDC tried to force officials to release the presidential election results and Mugabe's henchmen menaced Harare.

The same diplomats now appear meekly to accept the idea of a run-off between the two main contenders - despite warnings that it is likely to lead to a resurgence of violence and intimidation.

At this potentially decisive moment, when international pressure might finally tell, Gordon Brown and his Foreign Secretary David Miliband have remained almost mute.

Yesterday the Prime Minister was said to be planning to raise the Zimbabwe crisis with South African President Thabo Mbeki as "part of the agenda" for a conference in Watford.

The truth is that Mbeki's unflinching support for Mugabe has helped to keep the dictator in power, and our fear of offending post-apartheid South Africa has stopped us loudly stating what needs to be said.

After 28 years of Mugabe rule, the results of the presidential election must be known.

Punishing the poor

When the economy was booming, he might have got away with it. But in the existing climate, Gordon Brown's decision to scrap the 10p starting rate of income tax looks badly misconceived.

The move, which was announced more than a year ago but takes effect today, will hit the very people Mr Brown claims to want to help.

Anyone earning under £19,400 will pay as much as £232 a year in extra tax.

So much for tackling poverty - cleaners, road sweepers and security guards will all be worse off.

It will pay for a 2p cut in the basic 22p band, a cynical political strategy that punishes rock-solid Labour voters in the hope of attracting floating middle classes.

The party's worried backbenchers say support for the Government is too low to take this for granted, and fear they will pay for it at the next Election.

The issue has become a rallying point for party disaffection, and suggests that another classic Brown ruse - announcing unpopular measures to take effect in the distant future - no longer works.

For the Prime Minister's sake, he must hope political strategist Mark Penn, his latest recruit, can think of more sophisticated ways to spin him out of trouble.