THERE was uproar when, as the bombardment of Libya began, gung-ho defence secretary Liam Fox suggested Britain might try to kill Colonel Gaddafi.

You might remember that the chief of the defence staff slapped down his political boss, insisting: “It is not allowed under the UN resolution and it is not something I want to discuss any further.”

Dr Fox was also roundly criticised by Labour for going way beyond the remit of a carefully-won United Nations’ resolution, in what appeared to be the clearest possible example of that dreaded phrase “mission creep”.

Yet, when Nato did try to assassinate the Libyan dictator – in an air strike that wiped out his son and three young grandchildren, nearly two weeks ago – the nation shrugged.

Extraordinarily, there was no statement to MPs about this blatant change of tactics and the Libyan crisis had, until fresh raids on Tuesday night, disappeared from the news pages – despite fresh atrocities by Gaddafi’s forces.

Now, there were good reasons for this indifference.

The Gaddafi raid was squeezed between a certain wedding in Westminster Abbey and the headline-grabbing killing of Osama bin Laden.

Since then, the gaze of political reporters has been focused on the agony of the Liberal Democrats and its implications for the future of the Government.

Nevertheless, this lack of interest in what our jets are doing in the skies above Tripoli is astonishing, given the wall-to-wall coverage at the start of the Libyan mission and, particularly, the furore over Dr Fox’s comments.

It is also deeply worrying for those of us who praised David Cameron for his bold attempts to prevent what he warned would have been “a bloody massacre in Benghazi”.

The prime minister still deserves credit for sticking his neck out on the world stage, but it is time for Labour and backbench MPs to shout and scream to find out what his policy is now.

It is not good enough for the Prime Minister to state that the UN has permitted attacks against “command and control” sites – when it is clear that one individual was deliberately targeted.

Mr Cameron might believe that killing Gaddafi is the best way to avoid a long and bloody stalemate in Libya, but who can predict what the consequences of that will be?

Nobody thought that arming the Taliban and mujahideen against the Soviets, in Afghanistan, would lead to the 9/11 attacks and a decade-long occupation of that country – but many now argue it did just that.

Isn’t it better for the West to help the Libyans overthrow their dictator – not illegally bury him in a pile of rubble? And shouldn’t the Government be answering questions about this?

ERIC PICKLES-WATCH: Regular readers will know of my belief that the community secretary’s unique talents could be employed elsewhere, rather than in destroying council services – and inventing nonsense about their waste.

I have also criticised the Government’s d claims for the job-creating muscle of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), which – as we all know – will be starved of money and power. Now we learn that one LEP made a asked for £25,000 to get itself up-and-running, only to be told that it could easily raise such a sum...by staging a dinner dance.