After the execution of Saddam Hussein, before dawn on 30 December, those who most benefit from his hanging "in this manner", are now condemning it as "deplorable" and "unacceptable".

These were Chancellor Brown's words, but Blair will no doubt join in the criticisms of Saddam's execution made by his ministers, when he makes his official statement. Of course these Labour ministers who, with Blair, all have Iraqi blood on their hands, nevertheless felt they should be heard saying "it shouldn't have happened in this way".

Really? But surely getting Saddam out of the way as soon as possible, even before he had faced all the charges against him, was the best possible outcome for both the Blair and Bush governments?

Facing an already intractable situation in the country they invaded in 2003, under false pretexts, the last thing they wanted was to risk a full account of their own crimes being exposed, which was a possibility, had Saddam been given a proper trial.

They certainly did not want the British and US public to be reminded of how Saddam was fully supported by the US administrations and the governments of "old colonial power", Britain, when he physically eradicated the then powerful Iraqi working class movement and Iraqi Communist Party, after he came to power in 1979! Nor how the US and British governments encouraged him to go to war with Iran in 1980, nor how they armed him with biological and chemical weapons technology - all in the full knowledge of the horrors which were thus perpetrated both against the Iranians and those fighting against him inside Iraq.

Saddam was merely another auxiliary of the rich western countries' power games in the Middle East. Today, they have new puppets, who, for the time being, obey their diktats, and probably realise the dangers of not doing so! The hypocrisy of Blair's ministers' sudden distaste for brutality, is just as shocking as the conduct of the Interior Ministry guards who carried out the US/British-contrived death sentence. Because that is what it was, no matter how Iraq's Prime Minister Maliki may insist that it was a "domestic affair"!

This week two more death sentences are due to be carried out, against Saddam's former intelligence minister and his chief judge. The same politicians have let it be known that they do not approve. But what do they want? A more "humane" hanging? Did they not endorse the new Iraqi constitution which incorporates capital punishment and what is more, do they not preside over a country in which people are killed every day by the occupying troops?

Yet all this pales into insignificance compared to the tens of thousands that Blair and Brown sentenced knowingly to death by joining in the initial bombing of the war. It pales into insignificance when the Iraqi dead and injured, due to the occupation, are counted. Not only has the war claimed over 600,000 Iraqi lives, but it has unleashed a bloody civil war between militias vying for political power. There is not the slightest guarantee that a regime coming out of this mess will be any better than Saddam's.

But will the criminals responsible for this be held to account? Not unless us working people see to it.

Mayor Livingstone's Transport for London has endorsed an increase in cash bus and tube fares by 33%. Low-paid workers have already been priced off the tube and trains. Yet even the "discounted" Oyster card fares on the buses are 25% up, to £1 per journey. These are the highest fares in the whole of Europe.

Livingstone says these fare hikes are "necessary" - to pay for investment in transport and to push people to opt for the Oyster, which offers 20% savings, even if it is not accepted on local rail services. Of course, the pre-pay Oyster means that ticket office jobs can be cut, and since it means paying in advance, it certainly helps TfL's finances.

Which is just as well, given that this quango has 76 "employees" earning over £100,000 per month!

The highest paid is TfL boss, Peter Hendy, a multimillionaire already, who gets a £320,000-plus-bonus salary. He took over from Bob Kiley, an ex-CIA agent brought over to facilitate the contracting out of the Tube's tracks to private sharks, while appearing to oppose it. Kiley was the highest paid "public servant" in Britain, on £1.1m, and still gets £3,200/year for "consultancy services"!

High fares do not only fund Livingstone's gravy train, but they just extend "congestion charging" to tubes and buses to solve the problem of transport under-investment in a tried and tested way: make it too expensive for people to ride! This stinks.