Newsweek Scotland - a look at the Megrahi release affair

Set your own political affiliations aside, and imagine Macaskill standing up at Holyrood and announcing: "I have today agreed to let the British Government send the Lockerbie bomber home to Libya under a transfer agreement and in return have secured the ground-breaking concession of control over air guns."

Does that sound...well, a bit limp? You have to admit it is, at best, unlikely. Not only would world opinion crash around their heads, they would be a laughing stock for trading so low.

However, Newsweek is wondering if there could there be another explanation. Suppose in the early days of a new administration - the first ever SNP Government - in 2007 and a year BEFORE al-Megrahi was diagnosed with cancer, Macaskill suddenly realised he was holding the golden key that London was craving. Al-Megrahi was the one component that could unlock massively lucrative deals for British companies....deals worth billions of pounds and thousands of jobs, especially for BP. The British Cabinet was pressing for an answer.

Would it really have been unconscionable for a politician to explore the possibilities in private discussion just how far London might move - to see just what consequential benefits might flow from London's desperation to deal with Gadaffi? Isn't that exactly what politics is about and isn't it true that deals and accommodations are done all the time? The Lib Dems are now skewered for their decision on tuition fees with the Conservatives for example. And what about the freeing of convicted murderers in Northern Ireland under the Peace Process? Unpalatable, yes, but sometimes you swallow hard in the greater good.

The wreckage of PAN AM Boeing 747 flight 103, which exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, after a terrorist bomb on 22/12/1988

As for the awkward matter of handing the power of release back to London...well, Megrahi was in Scottish custody because Pan Am 103 came down over Lockerbie but its wheels last left the earth in London, it had travelled from Frankfurt, more than half the passengers were American, the rest were from 20 different countries, the Crown claimed the bomb was put aboard in Malta....terrorism is global. And in the interests of British foreign policy and the British economy, why shouldn't the SNP show a theoretical willingness to co-operate and include Megrahi in a PTA, asking that certain safeguards on his treatment be respected and insisting that it was a one-off initiative? They are adamant their line never varied, but....

Then suppose that instead of minor concessions, the British Government delivered something huge to Scotland like control over a slate of taxes (an early version of Calman) and a promise no attempt would be made to build nuclear power stations on Scottish soil. You can make up your own favourite concessions. If Macaskill was fencing to see how strong his negotiating position was, does that make him a traitor? Finally, no deal was done, perhaps because Alex Salmond squashed any further move. Is all that more plausible than two sides claiming only their version is true? You can decide on Saturday when we examine the moral issues raised by life in government with Gerry Hassan who adds an intellectual edge to political analysis and Robin Wilson, an analyst who examined prisoner release for Mo Mowlam.

And still on Megrahi, I think we were on the money last week in asking Christine Grahame if the Parliament should legislate to allow full disclosure of the investigation by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission which found the bomber may have suffered a miscarriage of justice. On Newsnight on Thursday Alex Salmond said he planned to do just that, if re-elected. But enough Megrahi.

We're also into child care this week. I dropped off my two at nursery and rushed into work to interview a London journalist who literally works only in order to pay for her childcare. All her earnings pay for a nanny but she does it to keep herself in the jobs market. A new report found that Scots pay the most outside London for childcare and frankly we all cough up the equivalent of a second mortgage. Is that fair? In the UK we pay 33 per cent of net income on childcare...in Portugal it's 4 per cent...the OECD average is 13 per cent. We look at Denmark where they pay just 8 per cent and where the whole culture and cost are different with the State playing a huge part and women are able to work full-time. Can we learn from them?

Angus Macleod and Iain MacWhirter toss around the mixed salad that was the Scottish Budget and ponder on Labour's isolation in the Holyrood chamber. To vote against measures they themselves promoted (not for the first time, if you remember their apprenticeships amendment last year) looks perverse. Or are they manoeuvring themselves to be the only ones standing out against Con Dems? This looks like a gamble, giving ammunition to the SNP. Perhaps a Labour NO too far?



We again cover the astonishing stand-off in Egypt where the images of solidarity are truly inspirational and sympathise with bankers who are under such strain hiding their salaries and justifying their bonuses (possibly). Now if one of those bankers could just help met out with the cost of childcare....

Newsweek Scotland is broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland every Saturday, 0800-0900.