I’ve just watched a programme about Zimbabwe. The journalist visited the country ‘disguised’ as a golfer. There is a drought and famine (not unusual), but people in areas which voted for the opposition are deprived access to food supplies which people like us might be providing through charitable donations. Mugabe’s party impound all the food aid and sell it only to card-carrying party members. Many thousands will start dying of hunger within months. It’s like saying that if the US suffered devastating floods, only those in republican-voting states would be rescued.

It’s as horrible and insidious as what Hitler did and what Saddam has done. Mugabe has power, he wants more power, he fiddles the election by stopping many people voting against him, then he spitefully goes and tortures or kills those who were brave enough to do so.

Britain says ‘we are worried’, and keeps on saying it. South Africa, which controls electricity supplies to Zimbabwe, could do something but is not interested. So I guess we just wait till Mugabe dies, by which time the country will be in ruins and the world will have seen another ‘ethnic cleansing’.

One wishes there was a way that the international community could stop dictators at an earlier stage. But we pussyfoot around the problem until it is too late, then someone starts a war and we all suffer.