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If you show compassion to someone who themselves did not show it, it is not weakness, it is strength.
yeah, that Jesus bloke was a right wimp 🙁
VinneyH, that still makes me fume. And all the more so because the rest of the world seems to be totally oblivious to it.
He dismissed claims that the Government had sought to boost Britain's diplomatic and commercial ties with Libya while retaining the moral high ground by not endorsing al-Megrahi's release. 'That's a slur both on myself and on the Government,'
(Milliband from the daily mail link)
Slur maybe but spot on I'd guess. My cynical head says that's exactly what happened, someone in the government put pressure on scotland and gave Obama a call to check he was unofficially OK with it too. Admittedly SNP may well have come to same decision on it's own anyway.
The right decision I feel but I think there should be political repercussions for any official "celebrations" and gaddafis son being there and hugging the man on camera looks pretty damn official to me.
Oh yeah well done Scotland 🙄
Oh yeah well done Scotland 🙄
Oh yeah well done Scotland 🙄
Oh yeah well done Scotland 🙄
The four posts were not intentional, this website is ****ed.
Roll on Scottish independance. Who actually believed he WOULDN'T be welcomed back as a hero?
Maybe the Yanks will loose the warm fluffy feeling they have towards the "oppressed" Scots in the same way they finally woke up to the IRA after 9/11.
We released him because we believe in justice and a civilised way of life. I see why people accept this thinking, however why should those who ignore the rights of others be pardoned, even if they are dieing??
Because you have to rise above, otherwise justice becomes simply about spiteful revenge and is little more than a sanctioned lynch mob.
If we truly allowed ourselves to sink to the levels of those who commit crimes against us then we'd have put his family on-board a Libyan airliner and blown it up. And right now we'd have British soldiers beheading captured al-qaeda members live on Al Jazeera.
Personally I'm quite proud of what we did here.
We have acted with conscience and compassion.
Because you have to rise above, otherwise justice becomes simply about spiteful revenge and is little more than a sanctioned lynch mob.
Justice is little more than that anyway? All the prison system is there for is to remove the threat to the public and provide a punishment for your crime. The justice system is there to determine whether you're guilty or not, fairly, and if you are then you go to prison to serve your punishment. At no point should the punishment be lessened just because someone is ill. Keeping someone inside, fed and watered, until they die or finish their sentence [b]IS[/b] rising above their actions and being fair on all parties, keeping the public safe. Releasing them early is an insult. A mistake under the guise of "the right thing to do". The right thing to do was chosen in the first place. The bomber took their chance and paid for it, if he dies in prison that's part of his choice in the first place.
Spongebob - your sense of humanity is FAIL
Will it be a case of ...[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Saunders ]Quick recovery ?[/url]
❓
Words I'd like to be associated with:
humanity, compassion, justice, mercy
Words I'd rather not be associated with:
anger, spite, vengeful, vindictive, cruel
You may see the latter set as [i]stronger[/i], I do not.
There is a pretty clear difference to me between punishment and revenge. If a man is given a life sentence and that life turns out to be short then I do not think he has escaped justice.
Well i know of a poor care home in N w**,run as a money grabbing buisness,with a management who didnt care, that had numerous complaints agianst it,where somebody stole residents money, where the management said they hadnt,where the 3 local homes they owned, over a period of a few years,a resident died after drinking caustic soda, another fell from his wheelchair, and lay undetected for an hour, and died, and another fell from an upstairs window and died.Another chap suffered a broken leg and was REFUSED medical treatment for 14 hours,even though he was registered blind and suffered from terminal Prostate Cancer.
This is where the Libyan Bomber should have gone,there where plenty of empty beds,where all they cared about was the paymnets each week of up to 500 pounds plus per resident.
Where food was served cold, and of poor quality,the list goes on, this is where he should have spent his last days.
My dad did,and lived to tell the tale, until he was moved to a better home with better management.
Save compassion, respect and mercy for people who understand it. Oh! And along with self respect following that man's triumphalist return.
Compassion and respect for our own people first thanks very much.
>This is an international diplomatic disaster for Scotland<
Actually - it's barely news in the USA...
A less hysterical analysis of the fallout from this here:
http://www.lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/
project: That sounds truly awful. Your father was subject to criminal neglect. I don't think that means we should treat our prisoners in the same way.
tankslapper: and how can you hope to teach [i]"compassion, respect and mercy"[/i] to those that don't [i]"understand it"[/i] if you are unwilling to show them it?
I think Scotland comes out well out of this release. compassion and new testament "turn the other cheek" Rather than vengeance and " and eye for an eye" in an old testamentarian fashion.
So.
When Peter sutcliffe is dying of cancer he will be released on "compassionate" grounds.
What a crock this is. The guy was found guilty of a crime. Make him serve the sentence. Same goes for biggs. Only came back because he needed the health service. Should have left him out in Brazil.
Apologies for my non liberal views and poor spelling.
I think Scotland comes out well out of this release
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Apologies for my non liberal views and poor spelling.
Ah I see .......... you expect forgiveness and understanding from others do you ?
When Peter sutcliffe is dying of cancer he will be released on "compassionate" grounds.
Unlikely since he is being held in a psychiatric hospital, not a prison, and he is not in Scotland therefore not covered by the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act.
But yes, the act apparently grants Scottish Ministers the power to release any prisoner on compassionate grounds when they are terminally ill and close to death.
enfht: yeah you're right - Megrahi looks like he is larging it up and just laughing at us all. Clearly fit as a fiddle.
Oh no. My mistake. Actually he looks a lot like a dying man struggling to walk down steps despite a cane and assistance.
Can I just say - and in follow up to another recent thread - how proud I am of my country today.
.whereas I, for the first time in my life, am completely ashamed of mine.
In Scotland, we have some simple, straightforward and easy to understand phrases - "don't want to do the time? don't do the crime" is one
Like the Iraq invasion releasing Meghrahi was just about oil and pretending anything else is simply an insult. Libya has oil it wants to start exploiting, we have expertise, and not much oil left. Doesn't take a ****ing genius to work it out, does it?
GrahamS the dude on the left is Gadaffi's son raising his fist in victory.
The guy will be dead before the STW massive have stopped argueing about what tyres for the BBB!
I lost my dad to prostate cancer, and believe me he hasn't got an easy way out.
And do you REALLY believe he did the bombing singlehandly?
No, and I'd like to see those who were involved brought to some kind of justice. That'll never happen now, will it?
Anokdale, send us an email (mail address is in my profile) I come to Tripoli at least once a month for various NOC/Local business
And Al-Meghari/Libya never did it
I wonder if similar treatment would be given to the people who are known to have shot down the Iranian airliner killing 230+? Oh yeah, I forgot, they weren't put on trial let alone sentenced. They may even have been given a medal or two. Their govt (US) didn't apologise or pay compensation. Unlike the Libyans.
"don't want to do the time? don't do the crime"
He's done the time, and now he's going home to die.
Or do you think we should keep his corpse in prison until it's served it's 27 years ?
No, when he dies, he either goes into a pauper's grave, or someone pays to ship the box home. Just like anyone else who dies in jail.
Just like anyone else who dies in jail.
Not in Britain. Terminally people are generally sent home to die, but if someone was to die suddenly in prison, why would they be buried in a 'pauper's grave' ?
Have you arrived from the Victorian age in a time machine or something ? 😕
GrahamS the dude on the left is Gadaffi's son raising his fist in victory.
yes and I think any "Hero's Welcome" for him is in very poor taste, not to mention deeply insensitive (on a diplomatic and personal level). But that doesn't change the fact that I believe we did absolutely the right thing in letting him go home to die.
Why is it insensitive? The Libyans (i.e. the whole country) were set up and suffered for years, now America and Britain are in a desperate scramble for Oil, why shouldn't they thumb there nose at the west and make us/them suffer?
I think any "Hero's Welcome" for him is in very poor taste
Not if they think he's innocent it isn't.
If they said : "here's the man who killed 259, let's all cheer our hero", that would be in poor taste.
But if they say : "here's the man who was completely innocent and never killed anyone, let's all cheer for the ordeal he's been through" how is that in 'very poor taste' ?
btw, according to the BBC :
[url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8215419.stm ]Libyan authorities have maintained their silence on the release of Megrahi from a prison in Glasgow.[/url]
If he's a devout Muslim, and he did it, then his last couple of months are going to be dominated by the knowledge that he's going to hell for all eternity
If most Americans are as bonkers fundmentalist Christian as they appear in the media, they too know the man's going to hell for all eternity
"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord"!
[i]i'm pleasantly surprised by STW.[/i]
i would like to withdraw this statement.
If the situation was reversed and a Scottish man was released from a Libyan jail perhaps even with many in Scotland believing that he was an innocent pawn in some political game...Would such a man receive that same sort of welcome home in Scotland?
Ah well, we'll know for sure when the various documents are all made public many years from now.
Oh no - I forgot. David Miliband has slapped a Public Interest Immunity Certificate on them all, so they'll remain secret "for ever". I wonder why that is then?
Here in Tripoli the local newspaper the Tripoi Post is running a front and rear page spread with photos 'celebration Al Megrahis" release but on the inside it says thousands turned up at the airport to great him, no two busses of youths shipped in from town were actually there in the white tea shirts and baseball caps, they incidently had already been shipped into town as the leaders son was to address the youth movement in town that night anyway.
What is really winding everyone up here is that it says they are shocked at the state of his health, and i quote blamed the Scottish authorities for not taking care of Megrahis health while in prison and speculated that he was left, on purpose, to die of his cancer. End of quote. This from a country where the ones with cash get on a plane and fly to the UK, Italy and even Tunisia for definitive health care for cancer.
Speaking to the avergae Libyan they know this guy had dirty hands, he by his position in the airport was well connected, but are also fed up of the 40 years of similar stories put out by the Government here.
All in all a display of the normal lack of humility, understanding,denial and arrogance shown by the vast majority of Arab nations to International relations and Diplomacy. Rant over.