Dave Davis - defender of the free, Scunnering a speciality!

Funnily enough Sir Iain Dale has thus far not posted the following re the Tory Candidate Liz Truss whose candidacy has been referred back to her local Committee because she did not disclose an affair she had had some while back.

Some, including Dave (2) Davis take the view that it was none of the Tory selectors' business.

I wonder if he makes any point about Ms Truss' civil liberties, as he had been wont to refer to such at the slightest provocation I recall. While propriety is in question various matters of interest arise relating to these gents. Did Davis refer to the roles of Sir Iain Dale and Derek Conway in his leadership bid a while back? I recall that Conway, who is to go at the general election because of the scandal he caused, and Davis shared a donor, and that, when this was mooted in the press Davis recalled that a letter he had written to the PM some way back had not been replied to and felt he should draw the matter to the nation's attention. Loudly. So that the matter of the donor dropped out of sight like a ring into a fire. Mr Conway no longer is referred to in WIKI in his leadership campaign role for Mr Davis..

Old chums, eh?

Lady Scotland vs Bozo Bojo .. . .

I gather Chameleon and his "Cheap at any Price" Shadow Ministers are calling on Baroness Scotland
to walk . . or be sacked.
Now it was David Chameleon himself who asked fellow Bullingdon Boris Johnson to stand in the "Open Primary" London Conservatives used to select the celebrity to become their candidate in the PR stunt London's third mayoral election became.


He has the greatest faith in Bojo. Bojo has had to sack 3 Deputy Mayors for various reasons: suspected racist blethering, very big fiddle of expenses with the plod banging on the door AND . . .


Appx day 2 of Bojo's mayoralcy he took Ray Lewis on. No checks, no pack drill squire . . . When the press & etc found that he had lied about being a magistrate & etc and was suspected of financial shennanigans WHO WALKED?


Bojo still Bozo i/c my city . . . . .


Looking to recruit a Deputy Mayor to restore Red Ken would be wise . . .


Those conservative commentators who feared Bojo's example would put people off voting for "call me Dave" will likely be proved right in time.

al-Megrahi - Straw says look at the evidence

Jack Straw refuses to give an opinion on the release of al-Megrahi a report in the Guardian says today because he has not seen the evidence, a factor I stressed when the Prime Minister was being criticised recently. Notable that John Prescott has supported Gordon Brown (for a change):

Straw's former ministerial colleague John Prescott said he did "not have any objection" to the decision to release Megrahi, and rallied to Brown's defence over his refusal to express an opinion on the matter.

Clowns like Clegg and Chameleon don't need the full evidence to shoot from their hips - they are tawdry propagandists, desperate not to lose public support, uninterested in right and wrong.

Straw:

"I said in a letter to Alex Salmond that the prisoner would have a right to make written representations which, for sure, is true," Straw said.

His advice to Salmond is being used by the Scottish Labour party to criticise the release of Megrahi.

Straw declined to offer an opinion on the merits of the decision on two grounds, saying he had not seen the evidence and it would be wrong for a UK minister to interfere in a Scottish decision.

"I cannot offer you a view about that decision because I have not seen the evidence," he said. I know from long experience you have to look at the evidence.

"As the Prime Minister said yesterday, this is a decision for the Scottish executive.

"Look, it is for Scots to decide their own processes. Their legal system has been different for ever. It has not just been different since 1999. It has been different since the Act of Union in 1707."

The Scots Nats have no right to cavil at the advice offered, but MacAskill used part of his statement when announcing his decision to the world to attack HMG for NOT advising him re the conditions of the trial and imprisonment of al-Megrahi.

As Straw makes clear the Scottish Executive have independence in the matter.

In days to come few but those whose mental incapacity would not have obtained mercy from GW Bush when as Texas Governor he refused mercy to the simple minded on death row will deny that the decision was correct and correctly taken.

Lockerbie case: When mercy is messy

The Guardian says something feels "not quite right" so far as the "apparently" good decision to release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. What is not quite right is the transmogrification of the Guardian's vision and mode of feeling, which has been corrupted by its Quislings.

"Goodness knows the world could use more mercy. It is a virtue that wins few plaudits in the press or politics, so there was something heartening about hearingScotland's justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, explain his decision to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi purely in terms of compassion. The terminally ill man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, Mr MacAskill explained to the Holyrood parliament, may have shown Scotland no mercy, but that did not free Scotland of its obligation to show some mercy to him. On the face of it this was a brave and civilising argument, and yet the seeming purity of the appeal could not dispel the feeling that something was not quite right about the decision that had been made."

It may be said that I am biased for personal reasons, but the converse is true.

In the '80s the husband of one of the leading execs of Guardian Online lost an internal, local Labour Party election to me. The lady was most upset and very angry for no terribly good reason, because I had been successful in in a similar role which her husband had not. She then took up a job at the Guardian, where she has prospered, writes avowedly feminist articles from time to time and plays a large role in running "Comment is Free."

It should also be noted that the Guardian's "moderators" who claim it is necessary to pre moderate my posts there are essentially self selecting. Small wonder that the Dully Teles and extreme left wingers also, who loathe any defence of HMG, have signed up, and exercise power there, tendentiously.

There is too much rotten in guardian.co.uk

Comment is NOT free.

al-Megrahi's statement. Contrast with Lt Calley

Here is the full text of Mr Megrahi's statement, taken from the BBC News website:

I am obviously very relieved to be leaving my prison cell at last and returning to Libya, my homeland.

I would like to first of all take the opportunity to extend my gratitude to the many people of Scotland, and elsewhere, who have sent me their good wishes.

I bear no ill will to the people of Scotland; indeed, it is one of my regrets that I have been unable to experience any meaningful aspect of Scottish life, or to see your country.

To the staff in HM Prison Greenock, and before that at HM Prison Barlinnie, I wish to express thanks for the kindness that they were able to show me.

For those who assisted in my medical and nursing care; who tried to make my time here as comfortable as possible, I am of course grateful.

My legal team has worked tirelessly on my behalf; I wish to thank Advocates Margaret Scott QC, Jamie Gilchrist QC, Shelagh McCall and Martin Richardson together with the team at Taylor & Kelly, for all of their gallant efforts in my bid to clear my name.

I know they share, in no small measure, my disappointment about the abandonment of my appeal.

Many people, including the relatives of those who died in, and over, Lockerbie, are, I know, upset that my appeal has come to an end; that nothing more can be done about the circumstances surrounding the Lockerbie bombing.

I share their frustration. I had most to gain and nothing to lose about the whole truth coming out - until my diagnosis of cancer.

To those victims' relatives who can bear to hear me say this: they continue to have my sincere sympathy for the unimaginable loss that they have suffered.

To those who bear me ill will, I do not return that to you.

And, lastly, I must turn to my conviction and imprisonment.

To be incarcerated in a far off land, completely alien to my way of life and culture has been not only been a shock but also a most profound dislocation for me personally and for my whole family.

I have had many burdens to overcome during my incarceration.

I had to sit through a trial which I had been persuaded to attend on the basis that it would have been scrupulously fair.

In my second, most recent, appeal I disputed such a description.

I had to endure a verdict being issued at the conclusion of that trial which is now characterised by my lawyers, and the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, as unreasonable.

To me, and to other right thinking people back at home in Libya, and in the international community, it is nothing short of a disgrace.

As a result of my surrender, and that judgment of the Court, I had to spend over 10 years in prison.

I cannot find words in my language or yours that give proper expression to the desolation I have felt. This horrible ordeal is not ended by my return to Libya.

It may never end for me until I die. Perhaps the only liberation for me will be death.

And I say in the clearest possible terms, which I hope every person in every land will hear: all of this I have had to endure for something that I did not do.

The remaining days of my life are being lived under the shadow of the wrongness of my conviction.

I have been faced with an appalling choice: to risk dying in prison in the hope that my name is cleared posthumously or to return home still carrying the weight of the guilty verdict, which will never now be lifted.

The choice which I made is a matter of sorrow, disappointment and anger, which I fear I will never overcome.

I say goodbye to Scotland and shall not return. My time here has been very unhappy and I do not leave a piece of myself. But to the country's people I offer my gratitude and best wishes.

Clegg's clumsy clogs - carthorse opposition & commentary.

Clegg cannot keep out of anywhere he imagines there is an act to participate in. Desperate.

He is not alone, Martin Kettle of the Tory Guardian is another. And John Redwood, desperately trying to convince that he is more active than Chameleon.

Al-Megrahi was tried in Scottish jurisdiction, or he would not have been tried at all: had Jack Straw or Gordon Brown taken the decision from the hands of the Scot Nat Justice Minister Clegg and Kettle would have made the welkin ring, harshly.

If the Scots in whose jurisdiction al-Megrahi was incarcerated decided to exercise mercy, then, not only were they right but no-one has the right to insist otherwise. And doing what is right in the face of all sorts of American led hypocrisy , past and present, remains right. Obama, to his credit has not led the american song and dance, simply disagreed with the decision.

And there is no good reason for HMG to enter into the matter, expressing what inevitably would be different opinions. No need to form one. Quite right to support the Scottish, as they have. Fraternal.

Brown may very well await any sort of thank you from the principal scunner Salmond of course.

I hope Scots fighting in Afghanistan will make their feelings about any economic boycott known.

Tories Progressive plans for NHS Cuts

As I have repeatedly suggested it is the contradictions over Health policy and much else which makes Cameron's Party losers.

It is plain that in government Hannan, Carswell and perhaps a majority of new entry MPs would be against the commitments Cameron has uttered.

Now still more tories are saying there must be cuts in the NHS, while Cameron has unequivocally insisted he would bring year on year increases.

Ergo, if elected he will be forced into resignation, as soon as there is a crisis presented in the Billionaire media in a convincing way, so that his promises are ditched with him . . . . If he can get elected, as he rightly fears he may not, according to Tim Montgomerie, who should know.

Osborne or Johnson or some more capable scunner like Hannan (pictured) would then do the Billionaires' bidding: cut expenditure on all but security, cut taxes, sell assets below market value. No pursuit of Billionaires into their tax havens. Oh, he might get to play at "localism" too . . .

Another recession . . .