Justice Tempered With Mercy

No-one can ever truly understand the loss felt by the families affected by the Lockerbie bomb, which brought down Pan-Am Flight 103, with the loss of 270 lives and brought complete devastation to a small Scottish town but the question is: Was Scotland right to release the man convicted of this atrocity?

US commentators indicate that public opinion in America is that it is the wrong decision, with the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, US President Obama and even the head of the FBI getting involved either before or after, but what does Britain think?

The BBC in a recent poll would have us believe that even Scotland was against the decision as they believe that it affects Scotland's reputation abroad, others believe that the bomber's release was a New Labour trade deal with Libya and then there are other views, like ours, who believe that out of such a vile act, Britain stands Great once more, because the values we hold, the values our friends and families died for, in this and other acts of terror and war, stand strong.

If Kenny MacAskill the Scottish Justice Minister had failed to show compassion, failed to show mercy, then terror would have won, for we would have inadvertently adopted the same moral code of our attackers, but we are greater than they, for they, can't even comprehend such acts. How do the British really feel about such a case? When the politicians aren't attempting to highjack the front-pages of the press spinning our views to match their own, our views speak for themselves and another recent example sums it up clearly, for when Jack Straw denied mercy to Ronnie Biggs, who too is dying, the nation was in uproar and later in what many believe was a face saving exercise, he back-tracked and released the hospitalised prisoner.

We are not altogether different from our American friends, but on this occasion we must differ, for as the Scottish Secretary said in his press release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is now under a sentence imposed by a higher power. Thanks to Scotland, Britain is Great once more, Thanks to Scotland the lives lost at Lockerbie now stand as a monument around the world for the values, faith, beliefs and compassion we all possess, traits that make us stronger than our enemies. Scotland believes strongly in Justice but thankfully they also believe in mercy.