Prisoner compassion

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi released by a snivelling Kenny McAskill, on 'comapassionate' grounds, with no 'compunction' from any sources other than 'compassion' for a dying man.

Like no one else dies in prison, or everyone who's about too gets released? The Scottish government's been suspiciously quiet about how many other 'compassionate' releases there have been.

And of course there's been no 'under the counter' oil deals with Libya. Our government would never do that, would they? Apart from all the leaks that have been appearing about whos said what to who when (honestly, theres so much stuff, I can barely be bothered to list it).

I know this is a little late, but whats compelled me to write this is the decision by the justice secretary Jack Straw to pardon Michael Shields.

Michael was convicted, rightly or wrongly, in Bulgaria for manslaughter in 2005, and was allowed back to prison in the UK on compassionate grounds, with the expectation by the Bulgarian government that he would serve his time here.

It seems like more than happy coincidence to me that this happened so soon after Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi was returned to Libya. One could see this as a cynical ploy by our gov to gain popularity, or to show that compassion is paramount in our justice system.

But I just can't get it out of my head that this is a diversion from Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi's release, to show that the reaction that the Libyan people gave was very similar to that shown by Michael's supporters, and that the Libyan people's reaction was in actual fact not so bad, and only to be expected, and fair enough, and we can show compassion to our people too, no matter how much it may annoy the Bulgarian government.