The sight of these Libyan tossers flying the Scottish flag as the man found guilty is returned to that country having served TWO WEEKS for each victim turns my stomach. Oh, he's dying of prostate cancer...why can't he be allowed to die with his family. Why not indeed? Because he showed precious fucking remorse for the passengers on the Pan Am flight and the residents of a small Scottish town.
Where I come from in Scotland isn't really that far from Lockerbie. It's about 45 mins drive further up the M74 (or the A74 as it was back then - you can see bits of wreckage lying on the old road when they show the clips on the TV). Had that plane left five/ten minutes later... who knows? I'm slightly too young to remember all the detail - I was six then and am 26 now, but I think of it every time I pass through Lockerbie on the train. I always notice other passengers looking out the window as we pass (it's well sign-posted - Lockerbie is the first stop north of Carlisle) and perhaps they too are thinking about the carnage leashed upon this unsuspecting Scottish town. A disgrace.
To knock down a few arguments that are made in favour of his release:
"He's dying of cancer... keeping him in prison might shorten his life further"
As it happens, I was watching "Goodfellas" earlier this evening - it's a great film. There's a line in it when this guy who sells wigs (bear with me) tries to take on the mafia guys who are round "collecting":
Fuck 'em in the ear... and if they don't like it, fuck 'em in the other ear
That's how I feel about Al-wossname: tough cookie. Myra Hindley died in prison, and she was responsible for the deaths of far fewer than you, sunshine.
Anyway, got to remember Right Ranter's first rule of Scottish journalism: the Herald (a dreadful Left-wing paper, based in Glasgow - think the McGuardian) is wrong on every issue. See here if you don't believe me.
Next straw man:
"It wasn't him... it was Iran / Mossad / the shapeshifters..."
Well, perhaps it wasn't him. That's what we have an appeals process for. But to release him, such that he abandons his appeal, means that both he and the legal system accepts that he is guilty. Case closed. No further investigation into finding "the real killers" as OJ would have put it.
It's like getting a double word score in Scrabble. Combine (a) being (allegedly) at death's door with (b) there being some doubt over the safety of the conviction, and hey presto, the prison door swings wide open. Neither are perhaps enough in their own right, but under Kenny McAskill's jurisdiction, both together get you free. This is NOT how the legal system is supposed to work.
I have nothing but sympathy for the likes of Dr Jim Swire. But simply because he's been the most vocal of the British victims' families does not mean that he is right and everyone else is wrong. There was a full investigation and a court case watched by the world's media (at great expense, for that matter). The evidence against Al-Megrahi must have been pretty compelling.
Anyway, the Libyan government actually accepted responsibility. This is getting a bit like the 9/11 "truthers" who insist the whole thing was a CIA conspiracy (the CIA wouldn't, for a moment, have had the competence to pull off 9/11).
Finally:
"There are good diplomatic reasons for setting him free."
Oh really, what are they then? I've got nothing against the odd bit of cynical realpolitick but this is insane. At the very least (as Shrewsbury's MP, the excellent Daniel Kawczynski) has said, we should be demanding the transfer of the killers of WPC Yvonne Fletcher back to the UK. But, hey, she's only some dead English broad, isn't she, Kenny? No reason why the Scottish "Government" should act in the interests of those folks down south.
Perhaps the SNP are hoping to get a few inward investment contracts from Colonel Gadaffi. Might make up for falling out with the yanks then. "Whisky swigging surrender monkeys" says it all.
It's a cruel and bitter irony that this vile man has returned to Libya by plane. I note that he got off at the other end (to loud applause from his equally vile countrymen) - that's more than can be said for those poor souls back returning to see their families back in Christmas 1988.
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