MPs to look at effect of Megrahi release on relations with US

This is too funny... Look, I know the separation of powers (executive, legislature and judiciary), is a convenient fiction that people can wheel out in support of the idea that we live in a democracy, but let's pay lip service to it, shall we? Just occasionally.

MPs to look at effect of Megrahi release on relations with US

Guys, the release of Megrahi should have been a legal decision, not a political one. British politicians should not have involved themselves in it - and I'm sure that any enquiry will reveal that they studiously avoided committing their opinions to paper! American politicians are one step further removed, and really should STFU. O'Bama's looking less and less like a leader, every day.

You want the "real" world? A world of "political reality"? Then don't present the sham world of legal due process, while you conduct your shoddy business behind closed doors.

These are the facts that the general public has to work with: the man is a convicted mass murderer; he was sentenced to life, with a recommendation that he serve at least 20 years (I think); he's terminally ill; the decision was made to release him on compassionate grounds, so that he could die at home. The decision's been made - live with it - you'll only work yourself up into an impotent fury, trying to argue that Megrahi didn't allow his victims to die peacefully, at home, and thus should have been made to suffer more.

What is wrong with you? We're supposed to be the civilized ones, remember? And an independent judiciary is part of that - because it avoids both the possibility of decisions made on the (generally barbaric), altar of public opinion and the pervasive nature of political convenience.