I have just seen the speech by Kenny MacAskill on letting the Libyan, Megrahi, go, I had never come across him before, but zeroed on his politics immediately.
It was the bit when he mentioned the Prisoner Exchange Agreement with Libya, negotiated by the ‘UK Government’. ie ‘nothing to do with me guv, it was the bloody English again’ forcing us to do something.
Then putting a positive spin on the whole thing by saying it that it was Scottish Compassion (something he maintains the Scots are world famous for) that prompted the release.
I would have more respect for Scots Nationalism, if it had the balls to say this is a Scottish Decision made under Scottish Law, rather than all the bleather about the English forcing this particular poisoned chalice on him, especially considering who the unelected Prime Minister is currently. Tack on the compassion bit if you will.
The realpolitik is that we have made up with the Libyans, we need their proven oil and gas reserves ( The utter irony of the Germans and Brits driving and fighting over all this oil in 1942, to control the middle eastern oil fields further east)
The three hundred people killed when the Iranian Airliner was shot down do not count, the three hundred people killed over Lockerbie do not count and Megrahi does not count. The game has moved on in the last twenty one years.
So sorry, Kenny, Mandelson gets the lunch with Ghaddaffi’s son, you just get the climb down.