There, I've said it.
Politics shouldn't be about personal abuse and I don't like name calling (although I have stooped to this in the past), but Brown has shown himself to be undeserving of anything better.
Brown spent ten years hiding in the shadow of Tony Blair (remember him?) whenever there was a tough decision or bad news to deal with. It was just about forgivable when he was Chancellor. Now that he is PM there can be no excuse for hiding from the tough stuff.
The release of al-Megrahi has been a national embarrassment and has done lasting damage to our relationship with the USA. While I am well aware that this was done by a devolved government Brown has commented on everything from Big Brother to the cricket results. How he can choose to remain silent over this issue is beyond comprehension.
I understand Brown's dilemma, any comment he makes with either annoy the USA or Libya and damage our relationship with one. Even putting the obvious moral case to one side I know which country I would prefer to stay friends with.
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James,
Without wishing to cause offence, I believe your post to be slightly misguiding. From your position it is infinitely easier and amateurish to directly point out the mistakes of an individual without producing an alternative that would be reasonable and in addition, not require the use of hindsight to make. Arguably the only relationship we truly have with the USA is political. I daresay any public poll would show a decrease of favour towards the USA and rightly so.
Finally, had the Conservatives been elected and you yourself been slated for a mistake such as this, you would act in any manner that seemed to justify your actions (even if that meant ignoring it). Is this where politics has arrived in 2009? That our only manner of proving ourselves to be favourable is to be the party that offers less mistakes, instead of more improvements?
I believe the CONVICTION of Mr Al-Megrahi to be the national (and international, since it suggests the complicity of the citizens of our "special relationship") embarrassment.
The fact that we will extradite our citizens without hard evidence and do whatever the USA wants us to do is far more shameful and embarassing than the independent decision that was taken with regards to the release of the Libyan.
The whole thing has been turned into a circus. The Scots should be proud of having retained their independence in making their own decisions and we should respect that.
I'd have expected a better analysis of Brown's actions from you James.
Dig deeper, extract the truth and you will find an explanation that would embarrass all parties.
Brown is just pebbledash and you know how annoying that is.
Do you think that crises like this won't occur if Cameron ever hits the throne? What do you think he would do? These things have happened time and time again to all administrations and there's always someone with no responsibility waiting to have a cheap shot.
And saying that Gordon Brown doesn't act decisively is ridiculous. Whether you agree with what he did at the beginning of this world financial crisis he acted with a speed rarely seen from any politician in my memory. Time will tell if he was right, at least he did something. I have voted for all major parties and I can say that this time I'm glad it was Brown there for this.
This 'my man is better than your man' playground politics from politicians is a waste of everyone's time and is driving people away from an interest in politics.
Tell us what you will do, not just where you think everyone else is going wrong.
I would prefer to live in a free country where decisions to free prisoners are based on the principles involved, even if I do not agree with all of the decisions.
Pandering to people who shout loudly for political points once the decision has been made is as cowardly as interfering in justice for political reasons.
The cowards in this are the politicians (including some on our side) who won't point out that this situation is a consequence of devolving sovereign powers to tinpot politicians who have aspired to Icelandic style government (i.e. playing out of their league). Brown and Blair gave powers away to Edinburgh and Brussels, so Brown would look silly to complain about them being used.
I am not defending Brown, but merely suggesting that he is being beaten with the wrong stick.
I think there have been cases of British prisoners returning from abroad to unremorseful communities, so perhaps there should be some code of conduct built into release licenses internationally.
I see that Brown has now commented, but I bet you won't like what he said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8219960.stm
What do you think
Moreover, how do you rate the safety of the original conviction on a scale of 1-5 stars. Not that this should have anything to do with a compassionate release.
What do you think of Ronnie Biggs' release?
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