Vote of confidence

Peter Snow can put his swingometer back in the cupboard. The outcome of the Iraqi referendum on whether Saddam Hussein should be granted a further seven-year term of office was always something of a foregone conclusion. Turnout is also expected to be, ahem, healthy, although a little below the levels enjoyed by the late Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha.

This is one electorate that remains engaged in the political process. "With our blood and souls we defend Saddam Hussein," supporters chanted at a polling station in central Baghdad as they lined up to cast their vote. One enthusiastic voter pricked his right thumb with a pin and ticked "Yes" with blood on his ballot paper. "I will give everything for our great leader," he said. Say what you like about the Butcher of Baghdad, but even New Labour's control freaks haven't been able to stitch up an election quite as tightly as this.