View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Monday 24 August 2009

Monday evening notes

The cruiseliner Vistamar, which left us unvisited this morning, is currently just west of the port of Scrabster on the north coast of Scotland (some 20 miles west of John o'Groats), heading for Invergordon. That is a deepwater port on the northeast coast, some 25 miles north of Inverness. Although she is billed to arrive at 7 am tomorrow morning, I think she'll be there before midnight now. We're due another cruiseliner on Wednesday - that being the day that Bill will call round for tea. Bill? The former hurricane, now winding itself up as a nasty-looking depression in the Atlantic.

The Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny Macaskill made a statement to the Scottish Parliament this afternoon to account for the decision to release the convicted Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds. His statement was pretty much like the one he made on Thursday, with the exception of mentioning the scenes that met Megrahi upon his arrival back home in Libya. Opposition MSPs [Members of Scottish Parliament] felt that his decision had been flawed from start to finish, and were wondering why he had not been transferred to a hospice in Scotland. Mr Macaskill replied, saying that it would have taken 48 police officers to maintain security, not really compatible with a hospice situation.

Although I do not like the current nationalist administration in Edinburgh, I feel that their decision to release Megrahi was taken with the right reasoning in mind. I agree with the Edinburgh Leith MSP Malcolm Chisholm that the politicisation of this case is regrettable - and at any rate, Megrahi is now over in Libya, to die.

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