My granny or some other late relative used to warn me that the mind acted in the same fashion as a parachute.  If it were open it would be safe; it would work; but, when it was closed, it could wreak no end of havoc. Osmosis of  the myriad of column kilometres devoted to the  so-called Lockerbie bomber in both red-topped and heavy publications has not changed my mind one iota: I agree with Professor Black, of the Scots Law department of Edinburgh University. I  am entirely unconvinced of Megrahi’s guilt, and believe that the Camp Zeist trial was an affront to the Scottish legal system; one of the world’s best, if not the best. Al-Megrahi was convicted on the weakest of circumstantial evidence; and the truth now lies rotting for all time in files UK politicians have told us will remain secret for eternity. The Americans yell across the ocean at us.  They will boycott our tartan, shortbread, whisky et al. Welcome to realpolitik, to which America is no stranger. It might chasten them to remember the  Iranian aircraft shot down, not that long before the Lockerbie disaster. Until almost three years after the Pan Am bombing suspicion fell on the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. The Iranians were suspected to the gunwhales.

I applaud The Herald for its piece in last Friday’s edition, in which al-Megrahi informed us that a miscarriage of justice had made all his days utterly desolate. He has never fitted the bill of a hardened terrorist (do they not brag about their loathing for the West?). For me he was a very convenient fall-guy at a time when Gadaffi had no thoughts of ever cuddling up to us and our “allies”, sanctions or none.  However, as so often happens in history, diplomatic axes change. Beaming Blair shook hands with Gadaffi in a desert tent to symbolise a growing friendship, as al-Megrahi whiled away his sad days in prison, a shadow of himself.

The Bible and the Q’ran both proselytise compassion.  Well done, Kenny McAskill, for showing that Scotland can symbolise compassion. Well done, Alex Salmond for appearing on television on Sunday and answering prodding questions in a dignified manner. Shame on his mincing predecessor as First Minister, who was paraded out in an earlier bulletin to tell us that Scotland had been shamed.

Lest anyone think that I have an anti-American mind set, may I tell them that I have numerous American acquaintances.  A former journalist, I was brought up in Lockerbie.  I played an albeit very small role in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard’s reporting of the disaster; a feat that won us the Joint Reporter of the Year award in the Bank of Scotland press awards.  I was in Lockerbie that night, and the unforgettably Miltonic scenes of carnage I saw are still with me….OFTEN. I also reported widely for several national newspapers (including The Herald) on the Lockerbie fatal accident inquiry, and other Lockerbie-related themes.  Logically, I ought to be anti-al-Megrahi. My mind, though, is open; as obviously is that of Dr Swire, who lost his daughter at Lockerbie.

I believe it was right and proper, regardless of whether he is guilty, that al-Megrahi was allowed home to die in the comfort of his family. I lost two sisters-in-law in their 40s over a period of a year.  (2007-2008).  I know a 21-year-old man who has a few months left because of secondary cancer.   I am well aware of the solace family and friends bring; and I hope al-Megrahi dies in the comfort denied the relatives of those murdered, I think, by someone else.

A poignant and timely reminder of the hypocrisy of some in the USA regarding the shooting down of the Iranian civil airbus in 1988.

I'm proud that our government stood up to the US politicians and media and showed the world that Scotland considers compassion as one of our core values.

The Reagan/Bush and Thatcher administrations were anything but compassionate in the 1980s. Both of these administrations perverted the idea of justice when they framed Al-Megrahi and Libya to suit their short term political needs - when it was clearly a Palestinian terror group, led by Ahmed Jibril, and contracted by the Iranian government, who carried out the evil act over Lockerbie 

Hopefully time will show that Al Megrahi did not do it. The evidence against him was so circumstantial that a jury would have found the case, at best, not proven. I take isssue with a nation that shot down a civilian airliner with 290 souls and decorated the perpetrator for gallantry; sentenced a mass murderer, William Calley, to life for the slaughter of 500 innocents then after he had served 3 years of 'house arrest' released him, lecturing us on 'justice'. MacAskill was extremely dignified in his handling of this poisoned chalice thrust into his hands by the UK government and, unlike the 'silent majority' of Ian Gray's imagination, I am PROUD of being Scottish.

My friend in Ireland has reminded me of all the killers wandering free in Ireland following the Good Friday agreement, some in offices of state. The Megrahi affair is, according to him, 'not on the radar' across the Irish Sea, nor in most parts of the world outwith America I would suspect. The only people who should be hanging their heads in shame are the ineffectual hypocrites who constitute the opposition to the Scottish Government who cannot see beyond the miasma of petty party politics.

Having been in Malta Airport a few times in 1988/89 I think the Libyan Airlines procedures were probably lax enough for anyone to get a luggage label or two. San Francisco airport California was equally carefree when I came through it two weeks after Lockerbie. "We don't have terrorists in the Bay Area" was their policy.