Boards
Tony Blair, David Cameron, David Milliband, Jack Straw, Gordon Brown, Kenneth Clarke, Lord Terfgarne: a total shower of slimy two-faced bastards.
BP, Barclays, GlaxoSmithKline, British American Tobacco & co: I wouldn't expect anything more that single minded ruthless business tactics from them.
Alex Salmond & Kenny MacAskill: a pair with an excellent sense right and wrong, political geniuses, or both.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton should hold their tongues and keep to the facts. Remember how Galloway (say what you like about him) made chumps of his US detractors when he let rip.
Let's summarise:
March 2004: Tony Blair meets Gadhafi in Libya. New talk of co-operation.
May 2007: BP announces £545m oil-drilling concession in Libya.
May 2007: Britain signs "memorandum of understanding" with Libya.
June 2007: Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond condemns UK government for signing memorandum, saying it includes negotiations on prisoner transfer and that the Lockerbie bomber is a matter for Scottish justice system.
July 2007: Jack Straw, as Justice Secretary, tells Kenny MacAskill (Straw's equivalent in the Scottish Government) that he is fine with that, and that he would exclude al-Megrahi from any prisoner transfer scheme. i.e. Megrahi shall serve his sentence.
December 2007: Straw tells MacAskill he has reversed this position on the grounds of UK's "overwhelming interests." i.e. if we release Megrahi, we'll get access to a shit load of oil. MacAskill and Salmond say "not in our name, he's staying here". Suck it up.
September 2008: Al-Megrahi diagnosed with prostate cancer.
May 2009: D Miliband was Foreign Secretary when the UK signed the prisoner transfer agreement with Libya with the clear intention of sending Megrahi back to Libya. Libya applies for al-Megrahi to be sent home.
July 2009: Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis says he hopes MacAskill will consider transfer request. Conservative peer, Lord Terfgarne, chairman of the Libya British Business Council, tries to lean on and arm twist Alex Salmond and Kenny MacAskill directly, saying: "LBBC has a number of Scottish members who are anxious concerning the case of Mr Megrahi." They tell him to get tae fuck. Again.
August 2009: The Libyan British Business Council in London declined to comment on what impact the release of Megrahi might have, highlighting the sensitivity of the affair. But makes clear that blue-chip Britain is keen to do business there. MacAskill AGAIN rules out prisoner transfer for economic reasons saying that Megrahi will only be released for judicial reasons on the grounds of compassion.
July 2010: Cameron mouths off and criticises the Scottish government, so he can cosy up to Obama and H Clinton. Even though his buddies were the big guns lobbying for Megrahi's release (Ken Clarke, now Secretary of State for Justice A).
David Miliband jumps on board, too, to blame MacAskill for releasing Megrahi. Even though he was part of the government when the PTA was signed (Gordon Brown tried to keep schtum and pass the buck).
Put simply: Big business, the Labour Westminster Government, and the Libyan British Business Council in London (led by Tory big guns) put pressure on the Scottish Government to put economic interests ahead of judicial matters.
There are obviously numerous news reports out there about all this, but my favourite link is to the letters at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/legal/lockerbie/correspondence . They're basically a series of rebuttals by Alex Salmond and Kenny MacAskill spanning 2007 -2009 saying "nah, keep us out of this one thanks, it sounds grubby as fuck".