DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Show mercy to a man tainted only by war 

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Alexander Blackman with his wife Claire

At the start of this crucial week for Sgt Alexander Blackman, in which he may get his first taste of freedom for more than three years, his former commanding officer sums up everything this paper and fair-minded readers feel about his case.

Describing 'Marine A' as a 'caring and devoted family man', Lieutenant Colonel Simon Chapman says in a letter to be shown to a bail hearing, perhaps as early as Wednesday: 'Fundamentally he is not a bad man. In fact in almost every respect he is a normal citizen tainted only by the impact of war.'

At no stage has the Mail condoned Sgt Blackman's killing of a mortally wounded Taliban insurgent on an Afghanistan battlefield. Nor has he himself sought to excuse his appalling lapse of judgment in that split-second in 2011.

But like our generous, common-sense readers who contributed £800,000 to his appeal – and the four impeccable backers offering £50,000 each to guarantee his bail – we believe his life sentence for murder was grossly disproportionate, given the intense strain he was under on that 'tour from hell'.

Indeed, Sgt Blackman's loyalty to Mail readers is to be cited as one of many reasons to trust him with bail before his appeal next summer or autumn.

It is not only for him and his wife Claire that we hope he will be home for their wedding anniversary next Monday. It's for the sake of justice – and the morale of our brave forces, on whom we all depend.

End this rail anarchy

As the rail unions step up their crippling strikes in the run-up to Christmas, how much longer can the Transport Secretary protest this is none of his business?

For almost a year, the RMT and Aslef have disrupted services used by 500,000 passengers in the South East every day.

They've inflicted huge frustration on commuters, kept cancer patients away from hospital appointments and caused untold harm to the capital's economy, affecting the whole of the UK.

Yet the feeble Chris Grayling insists this political dispute (no cuts in jobs or pay are proposed) is entirely a matter between Southern Rail and the unions. If so, it could drag on for ever.

For almost a year, the RMT and Aslef have disrupted services used by 500,000 passengers in the South East every day

Even before the strikes, Southern was among the most incompetently run rail firms in Europe (though this didn't stop the boss of its parent company trousering £2.2million last year).

As for the unions, who wrongly claim the strikes are about safety, they have no support – except among Corbynistas who want to 'smash capitalism'.

Indeed, if Southern's legal bid to block the stoppages fails today, Mr Grayling must surely intervene, either throwing the Government's weight behind sacking strikers or giving the franchise to a firm that knows how to run a railway.

Failing that, shouldn't Theresa May step in – and show who wears the trousers?

Still so smug, Gary?

Encouraged by traffickers to lie about their ages, 'children' brought here from Calais have disappeared from council care, with some working in sweatshops and the sex trade.

Don't take the Mail's word for it. Listen to David Simmonds of the Local Government Association, whose members have to cope with the fallout. Of migrants undergoing age assessments, he predicts two-thirds will be found to be adults.

When this country offered asylum to unaccompanied minors, under a humane policy backed by this paper, Gary Lineker spoke for many unthinking liberals by tweeting that it was 'hideously racist' to question their ages.

Wouldn't they change their tune if the social problems caused by abuse of the rules spread to their millionaire enclaves?