Guest Slot - John Hemming MP for writes on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

4.00.00pm GMT Fri 4th Jan 2008

John Hemming, MP for Birmingham Yardley

In the first Guest Slot of 2008 John Hemming Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley writes on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Sadly I am not surprised at the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. This was not the first recent attempt on her life. In offering a peaceful route from dictatorship back to democracy in Pakistan there were many groups who would wish to see her off the scene.

I spoke on the same platform as her twice in the West Midlands. Her message of democracy and the rule of law was one which I emphasise myself. What was unusual about Pakistan is that the dictator running the government had taken the unusual step of removing the head of the judiciary. We saw the unusual situation of lawyers demonstrating on the streets.

When I spoke at these meetings I emphasised that whilst you cannot have justice without security, you also cannot have security without justice. This was a point which Mrs Bhutto agreed with.

It is, however, a lesson that the British Government need to learn. We cannot continue down the route of a modified form of gunboat diplomacy supporting those governments that do our bidding regardless of the nature of their regimes. This is not justice and it will not provide global security.

If we support dictatorships against the people of the world then they will grow to hate the British government. We need to rediscover a commitment to an "ethical foreign policy" based upon the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

What will happen now in nuclear power state Pakistan is unclear. It is, however, clear that our Government's approach to foreign affairs has to rediscover policy based upon principles.