But Cyprus is only few hours flight.

Expat rescue is one of the tasks they conduct and they are very good at it. In UK, unlike football and manufacturing those skills were never neglected.

Yes lots of hype thanks to tabloid press and they do have their faults. I once stole a Bedford 4 Ton truck from them while we were on exercise in Machrinhanish, Scotland (it was early 90s in my para days); they recovered their truck but never reported us (thanks), so mystical ninjas there not, but worn, scarred, weathered and tough old boots they are (and gents of course that did see funny side of our drunken truck stealing exploits!).

Oh and getting back to our main issue its called ‘geopolitics’ and has nothing to do with Islam. You don’t need scholars to realize that, just try picking up the Qu’ran and reading it.

Salaams brother A.

Not so. There was some doubt as to whether he was a British citizen at all, being a Portuguese jew born in Gibraltar. As one of the conditions under which Gibraltar was surrendered by Spain to British rule was that no jews should be admitted his parents’ residence and so his birth was illegal.

Regardless of practicalities, Gillian Gibbons either knew of the record of the Sudanese government as regards religious bigotry and its concern for human rights before she went there or she was so ignorant as to be irresponsible. In either case she and others should know better in future.

I hope that Gordon Brown finds a way to defuse this quietly. The hard part is the Sundanese government. Far too many tin-foil-hatters in that lot to make one happy. Their penchant for idiocy seems to know no bounds.