Westminster complicit over Megrahi

If ever you wanted proof that you can't trust a word a politician says, you need look no further than the revelations about the Westminster government's collusion with Libya to obtain the release from a Scottish prison of the Lockerbie bomber.

Most disturbing of these revelations to my mind is the document published on the WikiLeaks site which states in a cable that "The Libyans have told HMG flat out that there will be 'enormous repercussions' for the UK-Libya bilateral relationship if Megrahi's early release is not handled properly"

Now that's fair enough. We expect the Libyans to be pissed off if Scotland didn't let him go. But the document then goes on to say that "HMG is also adamant that, despite devolution, London controls foreign policy for the UK, not Edinburgh" whilst at the same time saying that any decision on the release must be made by the Scottish government.

This seems to me to be a case of dumping the blame on the Scots so that Westminster gets off the hook. To a foreigner, it must be hard to understand exactly how a national government absolves itself from responsibility and accepts it at the same time! A prime example of doublespeak...

It is clear that Megrahi's symptoms made a long term prognosis difficult. These things are not always exact and precise. However, the document goes on to say that Scotland "has never before granted compassionate release to a foreign national" so one is forced to ask what influences were brought to bear on this occasion.

To make things worse, a secret US diplomatic cable, obtained by the Wikileaks website and shown to the Daily Telegraph, cites details of a letter sent by then Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell to his Tripoli counterpart. Sent within weeks of Megrahi being diagnosed with cancer in 2008, it outlines "the procedure for obtaining compassionate release", the newspaper said.

Of course, the Foreign Office's stance on this is that it does not comment on leaked documents.

I can understand why...

You can read the full documents on the Daily Telegraph website by clicking here.