CHEATING gets up the noses of all fair-minded people.

Whether it is a footballer diving in the penalty area, someone claiming state benefit they do not deserve, a company fat cat fiddling tax returns, or a so-called love rat having an affair behind a partner's back, cheating inspires strong emotions.

It is therefore in the interests of common justice that the old adage "cheats never prosper" is seen to hold true.

At Southwark Crown Court yesterday, the cheats of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, found to their cost that dishonesty is a very unwise policy.

Millions around the country had made up their minds early in the trial that Army major Charles Ingram, his wife Diana, and accomplice Tecwen Whittock were guilty. No need to ask the audience, phone a friend or take a 50-50 - it was clear-cut.

Cheers went up across the country when the verdicts were announced - because they were cheats and no-one likes cheats.

Their punishment is open to debate. Many will be thinking "We don't want to give you that" when considering the fact that the trio have only been fined instead of being sent to jail.

But the real punishment for those guilty of one of the most audacious attempted stings in history is that they will be forever known as the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire cheats".

They cannot be trusted. Their lives are in ruins. And that's because cheats never prosper.

Fortunes of war

THIS time last week, there was a mood of pessimism about the Allies' advance into Iraq.

The Americans had whizzed through the southern part of the country only to become becalmed on the outskirts of Baghdad. Their supply lines were over-stretched, their soldiers were running short of items vital when fighting a war - ammunition, for example - and unseasonably wet weather had turned the desert into a quagmire in which vehicles were getting stuck.

As one, an army of military commentators raised their heads above the parapet and started shouting about the US being sucked into another Vietnam. They said that the invasion of Baghdad was as ill-conceived as the attempted conquests of Russia by Hitler and Napoleon.

A week on, Baghdad and Basra have fallen and Saddam Hussein's regime is practically routed.

Last week the doom-mongers were pouring scorn on the coalition's efforts, but just as we shouldn't have been too pessimistic then, so we should not be too optimistic now.

Of course, there are difficult and dangerous months still ahead. And we still have serious misgivings about the build up to war, the extraordinary tally of friendly fire deaths and the future governance of Iraq.