A Lockerbie Inquiry

Good Morning!
Not sure what I intend to achieve by this blog or whether I will actually commit to it and keep it going. I guess we will just have to wait and see. But for now, here we go....

I have read a lot on the al Megrahi situation over the past couple of weeks. The BBC continued to keep the story afloat yesterday with their opinion poll claiming that the majority of Scots considered MacAskill's decision to be wrong. I find this poll interesting and it highlights the problem with opinion polls of this kind. I was once polled on migrant workers and I found the questions loaded - I would be interested to find out the exact wording of the questions on the BBC poll. The vast majority of people I have spoken to in recent weeks have been in favour of the decision. Now, I am not saying that those people represent a diverse group of Scots, however, so far I have only encountered a handful of people who think the decision was wrong. The handful who did consider it wrong were also not fully aware of the general controversies behind the case or were unaware that compassionate release was written into Scots Law.
I think a full inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing is desperately needed, although, I am doubtful if the truth will ever be known . The British and American governments are now working together with the Libyans and Obama appears to be making headway in the Middle East, therefore they will not be willing to rock the boat with a full and frank inquiry. This whole fiasco just goes further to remind me that over the last 20 years Britain has digressed; what with participation in illegal wars and continuously poor foreign policy decisions all carried out in the name of the British people. In the West we arrogantly believe that our political systems are preferable. Whilst I would rather live in this liberal democracy than anywhere else in the world that should not stop us questioning the decisions the government carries out in our name and scrutinising those decisions more stringently. I think that the days of a free press acting as a tool of democratic process are slowly coming to an end. Our governments will try to shield us from the truth of an inquiry because it is in the 'public interest', however an inquiry should be carried out not because of 'interest' but because it is our 'right' to know in spite of the international consequences. Until then all those directly affected by the events of December 1988 continue to be 'only a pawn in their game'.