SADDAM Hussein is a thoroughly objectionable dictator and the world would be a safer place without him.

But that does not mean, as the more gung-ho elements of the American administration seem to suggest, that his 11,000-page dossier can be dismissed and the bombing can begin immediately.

Rather the dossier should be seen as an own goal by Saddam that can prove, once and for all, that he lies to the world community and is prepared to pull the wool over the eyes of even those he regards as allies.

His dossier is undoubtedly yet another of his attempts to buy himself some time. But it has to be pored over and forensically dissected. The weapons inspectors, aided by whatever intelligence the US has, have now to find the evidence - if there is any - that the dossier is a tissue, albeit an extremely long tissue, of lies.

That evidence will then form a compelling case that will persuade the United Nations that military action is the only option.

So far, neither the US nor the British Government has been able to produce hard evidence of Saddam's development of weapons of mass destruction. Certainly in Britain, the Government's two dossiers have not persuaded a sceptical public of the need to rush into military action. And if the British public - which accepts how objectionable Saddam is - is far from convinced, then the Arab countries which have a natural tendency to side with Iraq will not be supportive of any action. Indeed, such will be their hostility that rather than preventing another September 11, precipitant action will increase the likelihood of there being a repeat.

So the dossier cannot be dismissed out of hand. But Saddam has produced the rope - now let's have the evidence with which to hang him.

Cherie's pals

MORE wild accusations were thrown at Cherie Blair over the weekend. But they still do not prove that she has done anything even remotely wrong or illegal.

And to expect the Prime Minister's press office to be au fait with intimate details of his wife's private financial arrangements would, on any other day, be seen as a grotesque invasion of privacy.

There might, though, be something in the suggestion that Mrs Blair's purchase of a £250,000 flat for her student son jars with her husband's apparent intention of making less wealthy students tens of thousands of pounds worse off by increasing university fees.

Principally, however, Mrs Blair stands accused of having a dubious choice in friends - something she will certainly not be alone in. But in Trimdon Village, she will be totally alone in finding a need to be accompanied everywhere by a "lifestyle guru".