Monday 12 August 2013

Death of Conservative Party Holyrood justice spokesman

The death has been announced of David McLetchie MSP, former leader of the Conservative group in the Scottish Parliament and latterly his party's justice spokesman and a member of the Justice Committee.

Mr McLetchie and his party have not been noted for sympathy towards the Justice for Megrahi campaign. Mr McLetchie's contributions to the debate, as recorded on this blog, can be found here.  However, it should be mentioned in fairness that his last intervention on the subject in the Justice Committee was in support of keeping live JFM's petition for an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie investigation and prosecution and the conviction of Abdelbaset Megrahi.

5 comments:

  1. Conservatives by inclination think those who doubt official explanations are left-wing radicals who are anti-British.

    I’m guessing, but I suspect David McLetchie felt the same towards JfM and critics of Zeist until he saw the evidence.

    His last comments at the justice Committee were very encouraging and I think reflected the new cross-party consensus regarding Megrahi.

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  2. You know, I really wish that was true.

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  3. At least on the Justice Committee!

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  4. Well, Dave, I was there and you weren't. The Justice Committee are concerned about the behaviour of the Crown Office and to some extent the Justice Minister. They do not have anything resembling "a cross-party consensus" on Megrahi.

    I did detect some signs of open-mindedness though, unless that was sheer wishful thinking.

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  5. The consensus is the unanimous vote in keeping the petition alive against the wishes of the US/UK and Scottish governments - a remarkable development in itself.

    This does not mean all, in their hearts, agree that Megrahi is innocent, but that is the political implication of their vote, because otherwise members would have voted against the petition – which some initially did and most may have done without Christine Grahame as Convenor.

    And once all agree to pursue the matter it will be difficult for a self-respecting Justice Committee to drop a totemic justice issue until they have all the answers – and this process will reveal the absence of evidence and create new demands for an enquiry.

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