As a former terrorist (in Palestine, 1946-47), let me tell you that Gordon Brown is right to extricate the UK from Iraq, but he is dead wrong when he argues that suicide bombers can be deterred in the same way as criminals. “Terrorism is not a cause; it is a crime,” Mr Brown recently said. Someone needs to explain to the new British prime minister that changing labels does not modify what is in the bottle.

More important, suicide bombers, as a rule, cannot be hauled into a court, or brought to justice, or deterred by the threat of life in prison. What gives pause to criminals has little effect on terrorists. We had a cause – independence from Britain – and nothing, not even hanging, slowed us down.