I was asked an interesting question in an email yesterday evening, one that my questioner will hopefully clarify as I am still not too sure what he was getting at but the gist of it is this:
Is Al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, more likely to be released because it is a Nationalist Government that is in charge?
I was stumped.
I personally believe that a Justice Secretary of any of the main parties would be going through the same deliberations as Kenny MacAskill is and I also believe many would end at the same conclusion which is a release of the prisoner on compassionate grounds.
The opposition we are seeing is partly for opposition's sake and partly reasonable. The calls for the medical evidence being sufficiently convincing which is a fair line to take on the matter.
But does it make a difference that the decision has landed at the feet of the SNP?
The party has proved its compassion credentials in fighting for certain immigrants to stay in Scotland over the past few years when mere technicalities would have had them sent back to their native countries so maybe that makes it more likely that they will show a similar compassion with Megrahi.
Further to this, I reckon Hillary Clinton's interventions will, if anything, make it more likely rather than less likely that MacAskill will order Megrahi's release back to Libya. With Iraq and more recently Gary MacKinnon showing we are in the thrall of America's global might, I think a bit of a poke in the eye for the Americans might go a long way in showing we can take decisions for our own without guidance from the West.
Indeed, Salmond has cleared the way for such an approach with his comments yesterday:
"There will be no consideration of international power politics or anything else. It will be taken on the evidence in the interest of justice."
And needless to say, the SNP showing they can take the tough decisions in the face of hostile opinions from the most powerful country in the world could go a long way to boosting their independence credentials. America's poodle, Scotland is not.
Far from this decision being "a bit embarrassing" as the Scottish Secretary would have us believe, it may be a fortuitous opportunity to boost the SNP's profile home and abroad.
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8 comments:
I don't think it makes any difference directly in terms of affecting the process. Two applications have been made, one for a prisoner transfer (requiring the dropping of the appeal) and one for release on compassionate grounds. There is a process which requires to be gone through in both of those cases and that would happen regardless of which party the Justice Secretary belonged to.
Where I think the SNP being in power may have made a difference is in the political context. Thw whole matter has been politicised to an unacceptable degree in my opinion. I don't think Kenny MacAskill has put a foot wrong but lots of others have, notably Christine Grahame, Tavish Scott, Richard Baker and (for the Tories) Paul McBride. The media - including the publicly funded BBC - have not exactly covered themselves with glory either running a series of speculative articles as though they were fact.
There is also a suspicion that the UK Govt may have been sticking their fingers in the pie too.
Whether all of this would have happened if Labour had been in power I don't know, it might have.
Either way it suggests to me that decisions like these might be better taken by judges than by ministers.
Mr Al-Megrahi is almost certainly innocent, as is the state of Libya. There was a Channel 4 documentary, broadcast in the early 90s, which pinned the blame on Syrian Hezbollah, which was (of course) funded by Iran.
An ex-Stasi officer maintained that the bomb-trigger was one of a small batch commissioned from an electronic engineer in Switzerland and supplied to Hezbollah. The clear implication was that PA103 was a revenge hit for the shooting down of the Iran Air Airbus by the USS Vincennes that summer.
It suited the US and the UK to pin the blame on everybody's favourite bogey-man, Colonel Gaddhafi. Holding Iran responsible would have reopened old wounds. So, for that Mr Al-Megrahi is condemned to die in chokey, while Hillary Clinton and everyone else demonises him.
With characteristic sensitivity, President Bush (senior) awarded the captain of the Vincennes the Legion of Merit for his period in command of the vessel.
"it may be a fortuitous opportunity to boost the SNP's profile home and abroad."
Isn't that why the opposition parties are going banana's, they did the same over Salmond's meeting with Clinton.
Unionism can never accept that other elected government's might need to converse with the Scottish Government instead of Westminster.
Welcome to the real world Scotland.
Jeff, was your post supposed to be so deliberately contradictory of Alex Salmond's statement or not ;0)
I'll say yes while shaking my head Stuart ;-)
No, I don't think it's contradictory though I can of course see how you arrived at that opinion.
I honestly don't for one second think that Kenny MacAskill will make his decision based on what is best for the SNP or what will advance independence.
But I do think the issue will have a lucky boost to the party's profile and its chances of being taken seriously at home and abroad.
Indeed, the near-hysterical reaction from the media on what is a fairly ordinary decision for a Justice Minister to make suggests further that this is the case.
Does that make sense or am I digging myself a hole here...? haha
Indy, once again you've absolutely nailed it. Thanks for the comment.
Wardog, as suggested in my first comment I totally agree. Even for some typicall biased media individuals (who will remain nameless), the level of banana-ness has been startling.
Albert, I must confess I don't know much about the history of the case but a very interesting theory and one that certainly sounds more than plausible.
Albert - and the Jews were behind 9/11. And there never was a moon landing. And the western world is controlled by 12ft lizards disguised as humans....
Jeff - the main difference between this decision under the SNP and this decision under Labour is that, under Labour, the decision would have been made in London rather than in Edinburgh, and communicated through some no-mark mouthpiece like Grey or Alexander.
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