Comments on SNP Tactical Voting: Megrahi - One year on

Fair enough Keith, compassion can be diminished wh...

2010-08-26T10:18:45.417+01:00

Fair enough Keith, compassion can be diminished when we're talking about someone convicted of killing 270 people. I say 'convicted of' because I don't think he actually did it, but that's a separate issue I suppose.

I think a crucial factor here is is that Megrahi is now getting treatment that the Scottish Prison Service couldn't come close to affording. SO while Megrahi may well have died within 3 months as things stood while he was in prison, and all the mental fatigue and lack of willpower that comes with that, it's little wonder that he is living longer with the best treatment that Libya can provide.

MacAskill's challange was to estimate how long Megrahi would live in a Scottish jail; not outside of it.

"So it's wrong to consider the implications of a prisoner release in the wider geopolitical context?"

It's not wrong to consider it but it is certainly wrong to make it part of your decision-making. This was a legal decision, not a political one. I'm genuinely shocked that you don't see the problem with conflating the two.

"...there's no doubting Megrahi has ca...

2010-08-26T10:01:59.895+01:00
"...there's no doubting Megrahi has cancer and there’s no doubting he is dying. I personally think that labouring that point is rather morbid and unnecessary."

Perhaps, but then I still think that if one is considering the release of a man convicted of murdering 270 people on the grounds that they will almost certainly die within an extremely short timespan - and a timespan which can secure their legal release - then it needs to be made certain that this is going to be the case. Many prisoners may have terminal cancer but that doesn't mean all should be released as a result. The timescale is all important and a decision must not be made if there is room for doubt.

"Incidentally, I find it shocking that you think Gaddafi’s 40 year anniversary should have formed a part of the Justice Secretary’s thinking when deciding to release a prisoner on compassionate release."

So it's wrong to consider the implications of a prisoner release in the wider geopolitical context? Or to show some sensitivity to the families of the victims involved? Could there not have been the smallest possibility that an SNP politician would have enjoyed making an independent political decision on the behalf of Scotland and which have ramifications across the international stage?

It's naive to consider this purely as a legal decision and not a political one.

Commentators here also seem to be extremely prickly over the criticism that the whole affair has been receiving from quarters outside Scotland. This is, of course, entirely reasonable and not part of some anti-Scottish agenda; the Justice Secretary's actions had political consequences and like any decisions made by governments they will be criticised by those who do not agree with them.

"I do happen to believe that Scotland is still pretty much 50/50 over whether releasing Megrahi was an appropriate thing to do."

I guess we'll never really know. I do appreciate that in strictly legal terms Kenny MacAskill made the right decision, but from a moral point of view releasing a mass murderer who has served only a few years of his sentence just does not seem the right thing to have done. Since morality is not objectively quantifiable I suspect this argument will drag on and on...

Fitalass I repeat - that is just your personal opi...

2010-08-23T15:38:31.122+01:00
Fitalass I repeat - that is just your personal opinion. It does not qualify you to say that any part of what was a quasi-judicial decision was incompetent.

The decision has been looked at very closely by legal experts who have found no flaws in the process.
If there had been any flaws it would have openened the case up to judicial review. We know that has not happened.

Whatever the decision had been last year, to keep ...

2010-08-20T20:47:33.737+01:00
Whatever the decision had been last year, to keep al-Megrahi in prison or release him on compassionate grounds, the opposition parties would have been equally vehement in their criticism of the SNP - that's the unfortunate reality of Scottish politics, unionists oppose the SNP in everything they say and do.

Had al-Megrahi been kept in prison and died, no doubt we would've had people like Iain Gray and David McLetchie on our TV screens calling Kenny MacAskill a callous cold-hearted barbarian. They would have called our country an international embarrasment across the Arab World.

Had Richard Baker been Justice Minister, al-Megrahi would've been released on a prisoner transfer deal, at the orders of Gordon Brown, possibly sooner than he was released last August, and all the questions about oil deals involving BP coming from the US would have been highly relevant.

Had Alex Salmond and / or Kenny MacAskill gone over to the US Senate hearing, the unionists would have thrown about accusations of grandstanding on the international stage. Instead they are criticised for not going.

It is to the credit of the Scottish Government that they have been entirely consistent in their approach, and that whether people agreed or disagreed with the decision which everyone is entitled to do, that decision was taken for the right reasons and by correctly following all the rules and procedures.

The non-news story today has simply gone over the same ground that has been gone over umpteen times before. When are the opposition parties going to start talking about REAL issues for the Scottish people, like the economy, jobs, health, education, policing etc? They don't because they know despite all the mud slinging they have tried to throw with the help of the mass media, the SNP are still doing a decent job in government and the opposition parties have no policies or ideas of their own.

Indy, three points that don't stand up to scru...

2010-08-20T18:13:37.061+01:00
Indy, three points that don't stand up to scrutiny.

Visiting Megrahi in prison, just before he dropped the appeal. What an incredible stupid thing to do, what ever the outcome.

The gaping holes in the handling and publication of the medical evidence.

And letting Megrahi leave Scottish jurisdiction at that time. The SNP have no control what so ever over the situation now. We know what the Libyan government want us to know.

Fitalass the Scottish, UK and US media, almost th...

2010-08-20T16:32:16.390+01:00
Fitalass the Scottish, UK and US media, almost the entire Scottish Opposition, a Scottish Parliament committee, a Westminster Parliament committee and a US Senate committee have spent considerable time scrutinising every single aspect of the decision and have not found any errors.

Frankly I don't think there are very many decisions taken by government which could stand up to that kind of scrutiny.

You may disagree with the decision, you may dislike Kenny MacAskill but that is neither here nor there.

The legal process was followed to the letter. The decision was entirely competent, as was the manner in which it was made.

Jeff, this article should be entitled 'nothing...

2010-08-20T15:20:28.913+01:00
Jeff, this article should be entitled 'nothing to see here, now move along'.

Except that would be incorrect. What ever people think of the rights and wrongs of the decision itself, its clear that MacAskill handled the whole issue very badly indeed. And the nature of government means that you are scrutinised and questioned whether you are an SNP Minister or from any other party.

So had MacAskill handled the issue competently, you would be perfectly within your rights to question why the his decision was still making the news. But he didn't so we are where we are. And the SNP government and local council involved have absolutely no control over the issue these days. Another glaring failure IMHO, and further proof that he should not have been sent home to Libya then.

The SNP YouGov poll was full of nationalist leaning questions, and they got the answers they sought without daring to ask the most important question of the day. But underneath it all, the decision and the SNP's posturing on the world stage has made us look prize haddocks, and that will resonate.

The Scotsman's headline sums up their fixation...

2010-08-20T12:30:53.424+01:00
The Scotsman's headline sums up their fixation with using this issue to attack the SNP. Whilst the media might be obsessed with the Magrahi release I get no sense that the general public actually cares. People care about the economy and their jobs, about crime and education but no one that I know ever talks about this.

David Cameron has stated that the decision was ...

2010-08-20T12:25:50.203+01:00
David Cameron has stated that the decision was 'wrong'. I don’t believe he has stated what the 'right' decision would have been. The US authorities thought compassionate release preferable to prisoner transfer so presumably transferring Megrahi to Libyan custody wouldn’t have been the ‘right’ decision.

I suppose Kenny MacAskill could have made the case (contestable in court) that Megrahi’s crime was so heinous that he had disqualified himself from compassionate release but how would that have sat with the SCCRC’s decision that there was a possibility that Megrahi was innocent? If release had been denied both by MacAskill and a Scottish court then that would leave the appeal as Megrahi’s only option. Does an appeal have to be expedited to serve the interests of justice if the appellant is believed to be a dying man?

The media printed quite a few pictures of him at h...

2010-08-20T11:47:13.125+01:00
The media printed quite a few pictures of him at home in Libya. In every picture he was wearing an oxygen mask.

The idea of someone who needs an oxygen mask being kept in prison is clearly ludicrous.

Could it be possible that the Libyans are giving A...

2010-08-20T11:29:11.536+01:00
Could it be possible that the Libyans are giving Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi the best possible care in order to prolong his life? Why has the media not shown him? I believe that the constant attack on the Scottish government may well backfire and If I was Alex Salmond. I would make a virtue of Scotland standing up to bullies in the USA who seem to think they have some jurisdiction over Scotland and the pathetic opportunist of the Westminster parties and their media cronies.

But there is no way Megrahi could have stayed in j...

2010-08-20T11:19:23.849+01:00
But there is no way Megrahi could have stayed in jail.

I heard Murdo Fraser saying that if he had been Justice Secretary Megrahi would have stayed in jail until he was a few days from death.

That's just not possible. We don't know his exact medical condition now but we know that the Prison Governor, the prison doctor and social work staff considered that he was too sick to be in prison. That is why they supported the application for compassionate release. The Prison Governor's report made clear that Megrahi was visibly displaying signs of ageing and pain during normal daily routine. His condition could only deteriorate, not improve.

The Prison Service has a duty of care towards the prisoners in its custody. They obviously did not want the responsibility of caring for a dying man - and why should they take that responsibility? It's a prison, not a hospital.

So Megrahi staying in jail was not an option. The other options were to place him in a hospital or hospice or in residential accommodation.

Well let's imagine that Kenny MacAskill had done that and today half the world's press would be surrounding the location trying to get a shot of him and shouting "Why aren't you dead yet, Mr Megrahi?" What fun for the neighbours eh? It's a good job Kenny MacAskill is not such a numpty.

I saw the latest You Gov poll and although the res...

2010-08-20T10:51:24.322+01:00
I saw the latest You Gov poll and although the results are favourable for the SNP, it doesn't actually ask the big question - 'Do you agree or disagree with the decision to release?'.

Interestingly, that poll also asked questions about voting intentions that are not being published. I would like to have seen those results!

Ruffters - "If the doctors who examined him...

2010-08-20T10:31:14.316+01:00
Ruffters -

"If the doctors who examined him at the time had been more accurate in their predictions then Megrahi would have stayed in jail and might still well be there"

They were as accurate as they could possibly be. As McAskill stated at the time he may live longer or he may live shorter than the 3 months.

'There are also fairly legitimate concerns over the PR coup handed to Gaddafi that the Scottish government must have known would happen'

Are you serious? In the opinion of medical proffesionals he had three months to live. I'm not convinced his timed its onset to coincide with the revolutions 40th!

""I seem to remember that Scotland was split about 50/50 over whether it was the right decision"

Would you be certain that this would still be the case?"

Recent polling suggests if anything the position has hardened, 72% believe that it was the right of the Scottish Government to make this decision.

"If the doctors who examined him at the time ...

2010-08-20T10:29:52.150+01:00
"If the doctors who examined him at the time had been more accurate in their predictions then Megrahi would have stayed in jail and might still well be there"

They were as accurate as they could possibly be. As McAskill stated at the time he may live longer or he may live shorter than the 3 months.

'There are also fairly legitimate concerns over the PR coup handed to Gaddafi that the Scottish government must have known would happen'

Are you serious? In the opinion of medical proffesionals he had three months to live. I'm not convinced his timed its onset to coincide with the revolutions 40th!

""I seem to remember that Scotland was split about 50/50 over whether it was the right decision"

Would you be certain that this would still be the case?"

Recent polling suggests if anything the position has hardened, 72% believe that it was the right of the Scottish Government to make this decision.

Thanks Gary/Mekquarrie, I guess everything polit...

2010-08-20T10:22:27.125+01:00
Thanks Gary/Mekquarrie,

I guess everything political in most papers is going to be tagged to the SNP’s already written-off chances to win the next election. Not much can be done I suppose other than hope that most people see beyond the headlines and make up their own minds. I just hope the SNP keeps its positive agenda ontrack as May approaches in the face of such hostility.

Keith,

His short life expectancy may have been the reason for his release but there’s no doubting Megrahi has cancer and there’s no doubting he is dying. You may say it sounds hollow to free someone on the pretext that they are about to die and then they don’t but I personally think that labouring that point is rather morbid and unnecessary.

I still don’t think the “PR coup” comes into it at all, I didn’t when Megrahi landed in Libya and I won’t if there is a repeat of the celebrations today. Should Kenny have based his decision on how many Scottish flags may have been waved at Tripoli Airport? Of course not. Needless to say it would be appropriate for there to be no celebrations but, well, what can you do. I also think that if Libya locked up a Scottish person who most of Scotland thought was innocent, you’d do well to stifle celebrations if he/she was released.

Incidentally, I find it shocking that you think Gaddafi’s 40 year anniversary should have formed a part of the Justice Secretary’s thinking when deciding to release a prisoner on compassionate release.

I do happen to believe that Scotland is still pretty much 50/50 over whether releasing Megrahi was an appropriate thing to do. But you know, so what, it’s yesterday’s news. Or at least it should be…

"I don't see how anyone has lost out f...

2010-08-20T09:36:11.799+01:00
"I don't see how anyone has lost out from a man simply living longer than was expected."

...except that his short life expectency was the sole reason for his release. If the doctors who examined him at the time had been more accurate in their predictions then Megrahi would have stayed in jail and might still well be there. Freeing someone on the pretext that they are about to die rings hollow if that person does in fact not.

There are also fairly legitimate concerns over the PR coup handed to Gaddafi that the Scottish government must have known would happen. Megrahi's return to a hero's welcome on the eve of the Leader and Guide of the Revolution's 40th anniversary celebrations was at the very least shortsighted. Perhaps it demonstrates the SNP's lack of experience of foreign affairs?

"I seem to remember that Scotland was split about 50/50 over whether it was the right decision"

Would you be certain that this would still be the case?

Well spoken Jeff. What I don't get is why this...

2010-08-20T09:23:04.986+01:00
Well spoken Jeff. What I don't get is why this is linked to the fortunes (promising or not) of the SNP. Kenny made his decision in a quasi-judicial capacity, not influenced by party policy (quite correctly). Personally I disagree with the decision and can see no conflict with any manifesto commitment.

Totally agree, can only think messrs Cameron, Mene...

2010-08-20T09:17:21.104+01:00
Totally agree, can only think messrs Cameron, Menendez et al are only looking for cheap political points scoring.