FMQs 1 March 2012–That Murdoch meeting! - amd The Megrahi Case

Alex Salmond exposes the hypocrisy of the three UK parties on Question Time

The Three UK Stooges - Gray, Goldie and Scott - in Scotland got agitated about the First Minister appearing on Question Time, and two of the Labour Party's press mouthpieces, 'The Record' and 'The Herald', were clearly unhappy too.

Well, they had good reason to be worried - Alex Salmond cleaned the floor with Peter Hain (Labour), Chris Huhne (LibDem) and Michael Howard (Tory) - on the NHS and on the Libya/Megrahi/Gadaffii/Moussa Koussa issues.

He received a rapturous reception from the Liverpool audience, who recognised straight talking from a politician when they heard it for once. Alex Salmond, with his characteristic good humour, also gave insights on the AV referendum and the Cable/Cameron spat over immigration.

Hain, Huhne and Howard - The Three UK Hs - are high up in the power structures of their unionist respective parties, and they were feeble in their responses, and squabbled amongst each other embarrassingly. (Scotland has their three unionist puppets to contend with, who have infinitely less ability.)

God help England!

People of England - you need your own Parliament for your great nation to recover its self-respect and hold its head up again in the world and speak its name proudly, as Scots do.

But Scotland has a choice on May 5th. Vote for your ain folk, Scots - and vote for the man who towered over these UK politicians last night - a statesman with only Scotland's interests at heart.

Did Gadaffi order the Lockerbie Bombing?

Certain things cannot be re-stated too often -

1. Megrahi was found guilty by a Scottish Court.

2. Megrahi was released under Scottish Law on compassionate grounds only, in the belief that the verdict was sound and that he was guilty.

3. No commercial considerations influenced the Scottish Government: there were no negotiations over his release with the UK government: Scotland was not influenced by the UK Government of Tony Blair or  Gordon Brown.

These are the only crystal clear facts in the whole Megrahi/Libya affair. The behaviour of the last UK Labour government was deceitful and contemptible throughout its term in office, influenced by expediency and commercial considerations.

The hypocritical behaviour of the Scottish Labour group in the Scottish Parliament has  been beneath contempt, characterised by utter hypocrisy and political posturing.

The behaviour of the UK Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government has been no less hypocritical and expedient. As cynical arms dealers to Middle Eastern dictatorships and suppliers of instrument of repression and death to be used against to their people by dictators, Cameron's government - driven into action by the Wikileaks revelations - has been motivated by a wish to secure short term political advantage against the Labour Opposition, and a parallel wish to smear the Scottish Nationalist government with lies about their role in the Megrahi Affair.

In this shameful politicking, they have been aided by the Cabinet Secretary to both the previous and the current UK  governments, Sir Gus O'Donnell.

The latest allegation by a Libyan politician,  that Gadaffi ordered the Lockerbie bombing, which to date is not supported by any facts, and may well be driven by a simple wish to gain favour in the US and UK when his political career is threatened, comes as no surprise to the Scottish Government, who believed that anyway throughout, based on the Scottish Court's guilty verdict.

However, it is not what those who believe Megrahi is innocent wanted to hear, and they are likely to retain their belief that he was either innocent, or did not act alone.

The majority of British newspapers seized on the so far unsupported allegation of Gadaffi's involvement with glee, and published it as a fact on their front pages, motivated by God  knows what agenda, since their thinking  has been marked by a lack of clarity and a total disregard for the facts so far.

One can only assume that the ConLib supporting press hope it will damage UK Labour, the Labour Press hope it will damage Scotland, and both of them think it will somehow protect the rotten, failing political entity known as the United Kingdom.

(Some prominent Scottish bloggers, who ought to know better, have also accepted the Libyan politician's unsupported allegation at face value.)

Whatever the outcome, the central clarity and human compassion of the Scottish Government's decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds, and on that alone, will remain unaffected - the only clear, principled decision in the whole sorry affair.