The news that a British couple have exhausted their appeals against a draconian Iranian jail sentence should surprise no one with a memory longer than a mayfly. The mullahs of Tehran are not in the business of mercy; they are in the business of theatre. And this couple, however innocent or naive, have become props in a morality play about Western decadence and Iranian sovereignty.
We can tut-tut from our cosy armchairs, but let us first look in the mirror. For decades, Britain has meddled in the Middle East, from the Sykes-Picot carve-up to the oily adventurism of the Iraq War. Now, the chickens come home to roost.
The couple's plight is tragic, yes. But it is also a lesson in the limits of soft power. When your diplomats are reduced to pleading on Twitter, you know the empire has truly withered.
The Victorians would have sent a gunboat. Today, we send a strongly worded letter. The Iranians know this.
They are testing our resolve, and we are failing. This is not just about two lives; it is about the death of a certain kind of British prestige. We have become moralists without the muscle to back it up.
And the world, increasingly, laughs at us.
