ISSUES don’t come any bigger and more emotive than the death penalty.

We all have an opinion, if not several, and if you’re like me, those opinions will fluctuate with the mood of the nation and the events that occur around us.

The e-petitions’ possible call for MPs to debate capital punishment comes at an odd time in that there appears to be no appetite for its reinstatement, despite the high-profile life sentences meted out recently to cold-blooded, remorseless killers like Levi Bellfield.

Interestingly, we are now probably in as good a position as ever to avoid the consistent fear that an innocent person could be found guilty and therefore executed.

Advances in technology and science make the proof of guilt far more precise and irrefutable, but the question is still always going to be: do we want to see someone sentenced to death for their crimes?

According to surveys, more than two-thirds of us say yes and when you appraise the horrors brought to innocent children and their families by Bellfield, Huntley, Whiting et al, it’s not hard to understand why the majority would welcome an eye for an eye retribution.

It is absolutely right for us as a democracy to be able to discuss and debate the issue, but I sense that the heart – and possibly the stomach – just isn’t there at the moment to force the government’s hand to make such an immense decision.