One last – barring any more developments! – post on the Megrahi Affair. Much of the commentary has presumed that there must be some grubby, even sinister, deal made. No-one denies that British industrial interests influenced the terms of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement (though, again, that agreement was not, I understand, any different to those negotiated with other countries). But that doesn’t quite mean there was some grubby, shady conspiracy or that, no matter what some people say, BP really stands for Blair Petroleum.
And for all that big business, government and nasty foreign regimes are often wrapped together it’s worth asking what might have happened if Megrahi had been tried, convicted and imprisoned in another jurisdiction. Like, say, France.
You may cordially detest Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and you may – witlessly in my view but never mind – refer to their party as New Liebour or ZaNu Labour but, as best we know, there’s been nothing in British politics on their watch that come close to comparing with the entertainment afforded by the Elf Scandal in France.
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