Senior Holyrood civil servants threaten Police Chiefs to withold information

Today's Herald newspaper has uncovered a story that key Holyrood civil servants are driving the policing agenda rather than letting the Police do their job.

Scotland’s chief constables have revealed they were urged by senior Holyrood civil servants not to reduce police numbers until this autumn, when a decrease could be blamed on Westminster spending cuts.

This is completely disgraceful and the senior civil servants concerned - Christie Smith, of the policing directorate within the Scottish Government, and Kenneth Hogg, another civil servant should be ashamed of themselves.

If they have acted under orders from SNP Ministers then this story will blow up even more, if they have acted alone then disciplinary action must be taken against them.  Civil servants must realise it is not they who are in charge.

I am completely prepared to accept (for now) that perhaps SNP Ministers were unaware of this, however the extra 1,000 police pledge by the SNP has been dogged with problems from the start.  Unfortunately the SNP don't have a great track record here!

Colin McKerracher, chief constable of Grampian Police and a former president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, said he and other chiefs were increasingly concerned by civil servants driving their own agenda.

For the SNP this is somewhat embarrassing, having senior Police Chiefs coming out publicly against senior civil servants who intimated at a meeting to the police that if they didn't hold off reducing police numbers until the Autumn, allowing the civil servants to then blame the Westminster government they would withold the final tranche of a £40million Scottish government funding package.

These civil servants need to remember it is not them in charge of either the police or the Ministers and it is more embarrassing that they feel they can act in this manner without reprimand.

The Police are having to start allowing police officers to leave under natural wastage to balance the books.

Stephen House, Strathclyde’s chief constable, has already warned of a £16m deficit this year and £30m to follow, leading to a predicted 540 civilian job losses.

Following pressure from the Scottish Liberal Democrats today the Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill will make a statement to MSPs in Holyrood tomorrow on the matter of the civial servants.

The Megrahi row continues

Wow, just as you think the row over Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds to go back home to Libya to see out the rest of his live is about to fizzle out - BANG - the Sunday Times releases details of leaked letters between Jack Straw and Kenny MacAskill.

The Sunday Times says "The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests."

Jack Straw is trying to brush this away by saying this is all "academic" now as the decision was made on compassionate grounds not under the prisoner transfer agreement.

The oil agreement was ratified some 6 weeks before but Jack Straw was also quick to pint out that the Scottish Government could have vetoed any move to send al-Megrahi home under the transfer agreement. The BBC website is also carrying the story this morning.

So, the row goes on and I suspect will do so now for some weeks, if not months.

Kenny MacAskill, the mistakes and the recall

I wasn't going to blog about this today given I did not watch or hear the debate, however I have sat and read many reports from people there and just want to comment on a few things.

I stick to my original view that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi should not have been released, although I do understand all of the arguments on the compassionate grounds, I do think we have to assess each individual case on it's merits and details.

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is terminally ill with cancer, I fully appreciate that is hard to properly assess and that is what has to be thought of when a case is being assessed on compassionate grounds. However, should he have been released to go home to Libya or should he have gone into a hospice here in Scotland? I don't have the facts and figures that Kenny MacAskill does.

Kenny MacAskill went wrong on a few matters, the first was visiting the prison surely as it was a quasi-judicial decision he had to make, he should not have gone to Greenock prison?

I cannot believe though that Kenny MacAskill really believed, and still believes that al-Megrahi was not going to get a heroes welcome when he arrived in Libya, for crying out loud, I think I could have gone down the bookies and put a bet on that being a dead cert. That was naivety.

Kenny MacAskill did not show good judgement through this event and whether you think he did or didn't do the right thing, I do hope he will realise what mistakes he made and that he never makes them again!

My final point is, should the Scottish Parliament have been recalled? Just one week before it was due to return from the summer recess was anything really achieved that couldn't have waited another week? Given there is to be a full debate next week, no, not really.

Should the Scottish Parliament be recalled?

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi has been released as I have previously blogged and now the presiding officer, Alex Fergusson at the Scottish Parliament feels it is acceptable to recall Parliament.

Tavish Scott MSP was calling for the Parliament to be recalled last week to discuss the upcoming decision. No, his request was turned down, but not now the release has taken place we read on the BBC News website - "Holyrood presiding officer Alex Fergusson announced the move to bring back MSPs from their summer break, days after turning down an earlier request from the Liberal Democrats."

Now I do not see the point, it's a bit like shutting the door, long after the horse bolted.

But what is there to actually debate? Apparently there will be a statement from Kenny MacAskill followed by questions from MSPs, what an absolute wate of time. I wonder what the cost is to recall Parliament for one day, just a week before the Parliament was due to reconvene following the summer recess anyway?

Kenny MacAskill, surely one of the most hated men in politics today is facing criticism from Barack Obama downwards for his decision to release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, dying from cancer, faced a sentence "imposed by a higher power". I'm not a religious type so find this slightly over the top. Don't get me wrong, cancer is a very nasty disease but it's nothing to do with a higher power.

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi the Lockerbie bomber and Kenny MacAskill

Like Caron says, I don't envy Kenny MacAskill this week.

I remember the Lockerbie bomb on the news back in 1988, because that is not that long after when we had looked seriously at moving to Scotland and then weirdly when I moved to Scotland last year came through Lockerbie one day on the train and found myself back that day thinking how awful that must have been for everyone living there.

These events leave their mark on different people in very different ways, I know how 9/11 affected me given the work I did over there with some of the people who tragically lost their lives and how to this day I cannot watch any coverage without losing it completely remembering the team I worked with.

So this week Scotland has been in the public eye and lobbied like never before, whether it be by relations or friends of those who tragically lost their lives in the bombing, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, the Libyan Government or every person with their own view, and let's face it, everyone does have a view on this.

The Lockerbie bombing was one of the biggest terrorist atrocities until 9/11 outside of Northern Ireland so captured a lot of people's attention, and has continued to do so over the years

One question I have though is before Kenny MacAskill even went anywhere near the prison to see Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi had the precedent been set with the Ronnie Biggs decision?

I don't know for sure, but in my mind the answer is yes. I know the cases are as alike as chalk and chips let alone cheese but I do wonder if that thought entered Kenny MacAskill's mind?

On the political aspect of who is right and who is wrong on this, there are arguments all over the place, I think it went wrong for Kenny MacAskill and the SNP when he went to the prison to visit Megrahi, I am not a lawyer and there are many far more qualified than I on this who can explain in great detail why it was wrong but one blog post that to me has a great balanced view and good arguments is here at Love and Garbage.

Over on the BBC website they are porting "The BBC understands he will be flown home to Tripoli from Glasgow this afternoon following an announcement by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill."

When you commit a crime as bad as blowing up a plane and murdering 270 innocent people, you have to serve the time, being released on compassionate grounds is a two way thing for me and it doesn't appear that Megrahi has shown any remorse whatsoever and therefore should see his time out in Greenock prison.