But there remains a worrying dislocation between the shifting explanations being supplied

But there remains a worrying dislocation between the shifting explanations being supplied from Downing Street about both the motives and the endgame. Until such doubts are properly resolved, the nation will remain sceptical.Now the churches have intervened, I hope the Prime Minister will also think twice before again implying that those who are not yet convinced that all peaceful means have been exhausted are in some way less moral than he is.The writer is the leader of the Liberal Democrats. You don’t swim through the turbid waters of international politics without developing some immunity to the bizarre. I like to think that I’ve heard too many exaggerations, understatements or sheer barefaced lies ever to be surprised by what politicians say But at around 9am on Thursday I found myself stumped. We’d all just trooped into the coffee bar at the Palais des Congr?in Paris, clutching the little handbags which our French hosts had prepared as a gift. There were pens and notebooks inside so that we might register the fine words of the delegates to the biennial Franco-African summit.

They bring together the most vainglorious elements of politics – the posturing, the status obsession – with the laziest journalism to produce a mush of speeches and dead-end resolutions. Think of some of the recent ones: the UN summit against racism in South Africa – one long rant that took the debate nowhere; the Earth summit in Johannesburg – more blather and enough room service consumed to build houses for half the squatters around Soweto Well almost As bad, if not worse, are the meetings of the G8. At the last summit the poor of the world were thrown crumbs by Western leaders who seemed not to care whether Africa sank or swam. Mr Blair’s plea for engagement with the continent was met with indifference.The Paris summit will have done just as much for Africa, that is to say – nothing. What it lacked in size compared to the big UN summits it made up for in the rich incongruity of its elements. The city of liberty and the rights of man playing host to some of the most venal dictators in the world. Not that President Chirac seemed unaware of this; the jaw-dropping moment came when he took the podium to welcome the assembled heads of state Remember, M.

Chirac was the one who invited them; it was he who decided to defy the will of the EU and include Robert Mugabe on the list, forking out several thousand pounds a night to keep him in a luxurious suite at the Plaza Ath?e hotel. In doing this Mr Chirac knew that the Zimbabwean leader would use the visit to prove he still had friends left in the world.Having thrown Mr Mugabe a lifeline, President Chirac then lectured him Before I quote the choicer chunks of M. Chirac’s speech, let us reflect on this fact: on my count, approximately 23 of the leaders welcomed to Paris were dictators, among them a man who killed his own brother to win power. And this is what President Chirac had to tell them: “You – and we – cannot give legitimacy to violence; we cannot allow grey zones or areas of lawlessness to emerge; we cannot leave provinces to become disinherited.

How can we remain indifferent to the grave famine now threatening 40 million Africans? Here too, the answer lies in determined action. The days of impunity or when people were able to justify the use of force are over. Now we must work to strengthen justice.”There was no standing ovation. I watched Robert Mugabe nodding along as if he agreed, or was he just lost in his thoughts, still recovering from the long journey to Paris? You might have thought the French President’s bold words would have troubled Mr Mugabe. After all, even the French agreed with the EU decision to impose sanctions because Zimbabwe’s elections were neither free nor fair.