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Macavity the mystery scot It is always rather foolish to invoke misty eyed national wells for values. One can always point to counter-examples.Now we know that Alex “a touch of the” Salmond and Gordon Brown have one thing in common? Is Macavity a ‘Scottish’ value?
There is one person in the SNP administration, however, who appears to have worked out just how sensitive this situation is: and that is Mr Salmond. Usually, the First Minister has to be restrained to stop him pushing in front of his ministers when there is an announcement of any import to be made.
However, with this decision, Mr Salmond has been remarkable only by his absence. Mr MacAskill was left to face the world’s press yesterday, on his own, not with his First Minister sitting by his side.
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Seems that the rest of the Samizdata commentariat have wisely decided to treat this little piece of English racist tripe in the same way that good Anglicans used to treat a fart in Church during Communion. And that is undoubtedly the appropriate response.
But let me try to elevate the discussion above the Original Poster’s blatant Olde English racism (so quaint in the modern world) and engage with an interesting underlying issue.
There is no question that the Scottish Government bungled this issue. They bungled it when they did not follow the guilty verdict with a quick bullet between the eyes. And then they bungled it again with this “compassionate” release. But let’s look at the situation they faced.
A quick tour round the internet finds the Scottish government document showing that the guilty terrorist was terminally ill, with maybe as little as 3 months to live. If the terrorist had died in a Scottish jail, the great & good in the English press would have been all over the heartless Scottish authorities. The Grauniad would have editorialized for days. So those weak-kneed Scottish leftists let the terrorist return home to die — stupidly not realizing that the same Grauniad editorialists would now beat on them for their weakness.
Maybe the universal lesson in this is that leftists are impossible to please, even for other leftists. And that a minority of the English have still not adjusted their mental attitudes to accommodate England’s irrelevancy in the modern world.
Few people in Scotland or Europe think this man is guilty, he should never have been convicted in the first place.
Google Dr Swire, Locherbie, Swire’s daughter died on the plane, he has been campaigning for his release.
No, *some* people think that. The vast majority of people in Scotland who have an opinion think he is guilty. But that’s also irrelevant. He wasn’t retried, he was released still judged guilty in a court of law.
Alice, I think your reaction to Philip’s original posting is way out of line. Philip is having a go at the Scottish political culture, as far as I can tell, not Scotsmen or women in general. At least I hope he isn’t.
Tom,
From now on I shall pay closer attention to Scottish political culture and the Scottish race (whatever that is). They obviously deserve closer scrutiny.
I shall also be racist to Picts and Dalriadans, just to be on the safe side, since there may be more than one Scottish race. Perhaps those who bandy racist accusations about define which race they refer to?
Philip
Alice: when did the Scots become a race? As for England’s irrelevance, what does it say for the Scottish parliament that they have to pull a stunt like this just so they can strut on the world stage?
I don’t think Megrahi should have been released, but the American reaction to this has been hypocritical and OTT (threats of boycotts, etc). Most Americans never seemed that outraged when their government in the 1990s pressurised us Brits to release dozens of convicted IRA killers to placate Irish American voters.
Good news Kevin!
We are not going to try the terrorists any more – so no more trials for you (and others) to not agree with.
We will just go back to the old policy (before the Church Committe hearing of the 1970’s) and just have car accidents (and other such) for the terrorists.
A bit like Colonel Peters’ solution for the endless complaints about Gitmo and everywhere else – “as these enemies are not in uniform when captured, shoot them – no prisoners, no complaints”.
Do not like the above Kevin?
Then do not complain about trials because you do not care for the verdict – expecially a trial held in the glare of publicity (with the whole media waiting for some error) and under Scots law.
As for the Scots.
They should go back to the example of personal responsiblity, voluntarism, and quiet compassion for others – shown by such people as the great Rev. Robert Chalmers of Glasgow.