Inside the American Empire

The United States' Senate has had the impertinence to summon invite Jack Straw, the former Justice Secretary, and several Scottish politicians to answer questions on the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.

I didn't agree wit the release of al-Megrahi and I suspect there is a lot more to this than we shall ever learn, but this cannot go without comment.

Whether or not these politicians choose to go to America to help imrove the election prospects of a few senators is a matter for them. But the American Ambassador should be told sharply that the UK is a sovereign nation, not a part of the USA, and that the questioning by the US legislature of UK government ministers about decisions made in their own country is the sort of behaviour Britain wouldn't have got up to when it had an Empire.

Perhaps if we gave them a list of Americans suspected of being involved in torturing innocent people they would send then over to a Parliamentary Select Committee?

I don't think so.

Lockerbie: amazing health development

On 20th August, 2009 Abdelbaset al Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison where he was serving time for the worst terrorist attack on the UK. His release was on the grounds that he had less than 3 months to live. I had therefore been expecting to write some sort of obit.

But..... my congratulations to the Libyan Health Service, for he is with us still.

On a completely unrelated matter the Deputy Prime Minister Lord Mandelson and the wife of the former Prime Minister Cherie Blair were seen with Col. Ghaddafi's son at a shooting party recently.

Megrahi: best forgotten

I rather admired Kenny MacAskill’s statement on the freeing of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber. It was to the effect that whilst Megrahi had shown no leniency to his victims, we, a higher form of life, would show mercy and that mercy would be irrespective of the heinousness of the crime.

But I didn’t believe a word of it.

Megrahi suddenly appeared before the courts eight years ago, handed over by Colonel Ghadaffi. It is inconceivable that he could have done the job without help, but his was the only name put forward by a man notorious for his instability who had suddenly decided, in the wake of Islamist uprisings threatening his dictatorship, to seek a rapprochement with the west. I found the trial a farce and I find Megrahi’s freeing a farce. If it depended just on medical certificates, why did MacAskill visit him in prison?

Whilst it has been put about that dropping his appeal was a condition of his freedom, I find it equally likely that his freedom was a condition of dropping his appeal. It is a regrettable comment on such an important person in public life, but I find that evidence of Lord Mandelson's involvement is further reason to suspect trickery.

This has been a shoddy business, best forgotten.