The suggestion is not merely a legal nonsense; it is an attempt to make a grossly immoral compact. The British authorities are being asked to exchange Mr Rushdie's life (he would be killed almost on setting foot in Iran) for Mr Waite's restoration to his own admiring and welcoming country. Even supposing that our authorites would stoop so low - and I like to think they would not - I am sure Mr Waite would not wish to buy freedom at such a price. Both are very courageous men. The one has risked captivity in seeking to retrieve hostages from the hands of brutal fanatics; the other has written a book in which, in part, he tries to expose the illiberal aspects of religion - those aspects that the brutal fanatics themselves personify so vividly.

The proposed exchange would only make sense if Mr Rushdie were an Iranian honoured in Iran who had been kidnapped by a group of English Anglicans or British Humanists. The sheer absurdity of that fantastic scenario is, itself, a comment on Mr Sayed Quddus's suggestion.

The plain principle is that whatever one's view of 'The Satanic Verses' and whatever one's views of censorship, blasphemy or whatever, the writing and publishing of a book can never properly be capital offences; that is the firm ground in which all civilised people should dig their heels.