Diary: Lockerbie bomber is beginning to outstay his welcome
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Your support makes all the difference.Somewhere in Libya there is a man who should have died two years ago, according to the prognosis of his Scottish doctors. Today, the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament will take formal note of a petition signed by more than 1,600 people who believe the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was framed.
The suspicion, which is not as crazy as the conspiracy theories that swirled out of the al-Qa'ida atrocities on 9/11, is that Iran ordered the destruction of Pan Am flight 103, which crashed into the village of Lockerbie, in South-west Scotland, on 21 December 1988, but that it was diplomatically convenient to blame Libya, and it later suited Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to accept the blame to end his country's isolation. Whether this is true or false may be verifiable if Libya opens up its archives.
Meanwhile, there has been speculation about how ill Megrahi really is, in the light of his failure to die on schedule. The US State Department is making noises about having him extradited, to which the Libyan National Transitional Council's reaction has been along the lines that the Americans are welcome to him.
Lord Laird, an Ulster peer, suggested last week that the matter of Megrahi's health could be cleared up if someone from the British embassy in Tripoli popped round to see him, but the Foreign Office said no. This is a devolved matter. Megrahi is in the same position as anyone convicted of a crime in that part of rural Scotland and released under supervision. He is the responsibility of East Renfrewshire Council.
Every week, someone from council headquarters in Giffnock calls a telephone number in Libya. Calls cost 15p a minute, and last four to five minutes, so the extra cost borne by the council is about 10p a day. The council says that Megrahi is seriously ill, and complying with the terms of his supervision order, but will not give out any more detail.
The position in international law is cloudy, but it would seem that if Hillary Clinton really wants Megrahi put on trial in the US, she will have to ask the council, since Megrahi is under its supervision. East Renfrewshire has a population of 86,500.
Katie Price feels the force of Lord Vader
Poor old Katie Price. Though about 150 people queued for her book-signing session at the Bristol branch of WH Smith, this was not as many as lined up in nearby Waterstones where the 76-year-old actor Dave Prowse was signing copies of Straight From The Force's Mouth, about his life as Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies.
Redwood's still risible
Talking of extraterrestrials, there were gales of laughter in the Commons yesterday when, immediately after David Cameron accused Labour of "being on another planet" because of its policy on the Greek bailout, the Speaker, John Bercow, called out the name of the next MP to be heard. He was John Redwood, who is known throughout Westminster for his resemblance to Mr Spock of Star Trek and is often nicknamed "The Vulcan".
You couldn't make it up
Everyone remembers the actors from their favourite television sitcoms, but which of the writers – apart from Armando Iannucci – ever entered the public consciousness? Jonathan Lynn, the co-author of the 1980s political sitcom Yes, Minister – a stage version of which is currently on a regional tour – tells in his recently published book, Comedy Rules, how he and his co-writer, Antony Jay, applied to the Public Lending Right programme for the royalties for their spoof diary of Jim Hacker. The request was turned down. A letter from the PLR explained that royalties were paid to authors, which in this case meant Jim Hacker.
Masons feel the pinch
Just as I was thinking that it is a long time since we heard anything about freemasonry, up popped an anonymous letter in the Daily Express headed "Is this the secret reason why we are still in the EU?" The "secret" in question is that our political leaders are members of Masonic lodges. And the principle aim of the freemasons, as any fule kno, is world domination.
But before they take over the world, the lodges are having to cope with a rising number of their own members impoverished by recession. The annual report of the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys recorded a 30 per cent rise in the number of appeals in 2011, compared with 2010.
The journal Freemasonry Today added the comment that "government cuts to local services such as libraries, school travel and the education maintenance allowance, coupled with a significant increase in tuition fees", has ramped up the costs of raising children. Could this, I ask, be the "secret" of the Big Society. As the welfare state shrinks, the lodges will make sure that the masons are all right? But the rest of us, who neglected to roll up a trouser leg and be initiated – well, tough!
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