to have a new look, at ourselves.
All my life I have been proud of being English. I was brought up with a sense of fair play, to treat all people equally, to stand up for the underdog and above all to be honest.
Today I read in the Sunday Times that Gordon Brown was actively involved in the negotiations with Gaddafi over an export order of £350 million for radio transmitters to Libya in the run up to the release of al-Megrahi. We also read that al-Megrahi was black-mailing Gaddafi and threatening to expose the role played by the Libyan leader in the Lockerbie bombing. It is hard to believe that negotiations over the export deal did not cover al-Megrahi. We also know that the Labour government did supply the Libyan Government with a detailed briefing on how to obtain the release on compassionate grounds.
I for one believe that the release was right … not only on compassionate grounds, but because the weight of evidence has always suggested that, if Megrahi was guilty, it was as a pawn and not a prime mover.
Anyway that is not what this article is about. Except to say that the Labour Government was less than frank, in its disclosures on the issue.
This lack of transparent honesty is simply a symptom of what we have become!
The Britain of today is culturally far removed from that English heritage that I grew up with. We have become a "win at all costs" nation believing that the end justifies the means. We are guilty of not only paying the biggest bribe in recorded history, but then squashing the criminal investigation on the grounds that it was not in our interests!
Blair does not defend the lies he told parliament, he relies rather on the end of removing Saddam Hussain as justification. Expedience is the order of the day. That is what we have become.