In Defence of Brown

In light of the release of the Lockerbie bomber, there has been many calls for Gordon Brown to make some sort of statement about the matter. Apparently, his keeping quiet proves his uselessness as Prime Minister. No. Why in this 24hr media age do we need constant quotes from our leaders. Why do they need an opinion on absolutely everything from the shape of bananas to whether or not a prisoner should have been released?

If any statement is required, I’m sure the Foreign Secretary will oblige. Or maybe not. As of today, he has refused to comment on the matter which only heightens the belief that the decision made was one more of politics than of justice or indeed compassion.

Putting that aside, the PM is on holiday. yes, he needs a break just like the rest of us. It is only fair that we leave him alone for a few weeks so that he can get some rest and spend some time with his family. In the meantime, there is a government minister on duty and matters such as the Lockerbie bomber should be dealt with by the relevant leader.

The problem of insisting a quote from the leader all the time is that it presidentialises our political system. It places too much attention on one man which is not how a parliamentary democracy is meant to be run.

I don’t often come to Brown’s defence because he is a pretty useless PM to be blunt, but come on, give the man a break and allow him to have a holiday. How would we like it if all we wanted was a couple of weeks peace and quiet and our family members (who knew we were on holiday) kept ringing us for up to the minute details of the family’s condition?

I think what is quite clear here is that Brown is using his holiday as a means to keeping quiet on the Lockerbie matter. Clearly there is three way politics at play here and the more they tell us politics and trade deals did not come into it, the more it looks like a cover up.

Put simply, we released a prisoner so that we could keep a lucrative oil deal worth in over £500m per anum. Oil runs the world and money talks. Oil makes money and money makes power. Keeping Megrahi in jail would make a political football of him and potentially jeopardise the trade arrangements and that would be too risky a strategy. Better to annoy America than Lybia seems to be the line taken by the UK/ Scottish Governments.