MP Kawczynski demands Lockerbie bomber inquiry
Monday 19th July 2010, 12:22PM BST.
A UK public inquiry should be held into the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Shrewsbury’s MP said today. Tory Daniel Kawczynski chairs the Westminster all-party group on Libya.
He also called on Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to apologise for the “huge error” in releasing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi almost a year ago.
David Cameron is expected to face criticism from American politicians over claims that BP lobbied for the release of Megrahi to secure an oil deal, as the Prime Minister flies to the United States today for his first official visit since taking office.
But Mr Kawcynski today said: “Clearly Mr MacAskill has made a huge error which has impacted on British foreign policy.
“So far, I haven’t heard any explanation or apology from Mr MacAskill and it’s very daunting for relatives of those who have died when ministers make decisions which turn out to be flawed, then they’re not prepared to account for themselves and not even prepared to apologise.”
The Scottish Government released Megrahi from prison on compassionate grounds in August last year after medical advice indicated he had less than three months to live.
Megrahi is the only man to have been convicted of the Lockerbie atrocity, which saw 270 people killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21 1988.
UK News
Most Commented
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Planners ordered to stay on Newport visit bus
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
- The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff doesn't raise a smile
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Am I the only one getting very bored of the constant demands for pointless public enquiries? Or shall we have one to decide why I went for blackcurrant jam on my toast this morning?
Report abuse
I think we should. Why didn’t you go for Marmite like everyone else?
Report abuse
It’s not just me who’s noticed Kawczynski’s been demanding this, demanding that and demanding the other lately, then. Perhaps we should call him Demanding Dan.
Report abuse
Perhaps Daniel could show his committment by funding it?
Report abuse
or Mr Kawcynski’s constant “Demands” for anything to get him into the news
Report abuse
Why? What’s the point? The decision to release him has already been made and followed through. If an enquiry says we shouldn’t have released him we can hardly go over there, re-arrest him and lock him back up.
Complete waste of time and money will be spent proving just how bloody stupid the government is – I can tell them that for free!
Report abuse
Why is “Demanding Dan” always trying to get himself in the national spotlight for things that have absolutely no interest to those who elected him?
This has nothing at all to do with Shrewsbury, not even anything to do with England really, so do your job of representing the people fo Shrewsbury!
I for one would love to see the doctor who said this odious little man, (Al Megrahi not Danny K – noone could ever call him “little” :)), was going to live for 3 months serve the rest of his time in his stead… then perhaps we wont have this constant stream of doctors saying prisoners and criminals need to be released on compassionate grounds because they only have 3 months to live, who then go on and live years.
Report abuse
Why is “Demanding Dan” always trying to get himself in the national spotlight for things that have absolutely no interest to those who elected him?
…..because Lembit Opik isn’t around any more.
Report abuse
Hahahaha – like it!
I wonder how long it’ll be before he’s on Have I Got News For You? Or rather how long it’ll be before he *demands* to be on HIGNFY :-)
Report abuse
….. and before Demanding Dan asks for taxpayers money to be wasted on more frivolity, I’m reliably informed that the chicken crossed the road to get to the other side.
Report abuse
Oh dear, another bandwagon for Daniel to jump on.
I suppose it’s an easier thing for him to do than to try and justify the havoc that his appalling government is wreaking upon ordinary people the length and breadth of this country in order to protect people like their multi-millionaire PM and Chancellor and their old Bullingdon Club chums…
Report abuse
“Justify the havoc that his appalling government is wreaking upon ordinary people the length and breadth of this country…”
Dear old Peter. They’ve been in for a couple of months and, somehow, you manage to blame them for all the country’s problems.
The fact that your mob left the nation bankrupt doesn’t seem to matter to you.
And knock off the Bullingdon Club references. If the best you can do is resort to tired old class war jibes then, my old love, you have lost the argument. And I say that as someone who has agreed with many of your comments in the past.
(Oh, and before you pipe up, I was not a member of the Bullingdon, I didn’t go to Oxbridge and I live in a house the size of a shoebox. However, unlike you, I refuse to resort to the politics of envy.)
Report abuse
Mark2,
But, like the current government, who, in case it has escaped your notice are planning to cut frontline public services to an extent that even Thatcher didn’t, you do seem willing to overlook the contribution that free-market capitalists, in the form of banks, made to our current debt problem. The figures are indisputable:
Current debt as a proprtion of GDP – 62%. Of that, 30% of GDP, or almost half of our debt, was caused directly by the need to nationalise the banks – a decision that the Tories initially opposed, but later changed their minds on. So the debt for which we might hold the previous gov’t responsible is approx 32% of GDP.
The indications are that provided that the eventual sale of the banks is handled correctly,the taxpayer will get all of that money back and more – but Osbourne’s stated plans to sell the banks to the public (who already own them!) seem to fall far short of the need to handle such a sale responsibly.
As I recall the lowest debt to GDP figure the Tories achieved under Thatcher was about 25% – not much lower than the current ‘real’ 32% – and let’s not forget the derelict schools and the NHS waiting lists that allowed them to achieve that figure. If we go back to an earlier time, in the late 1950′s when Macmillan said ‘You’ve never had it so good’ we had a debt to GDP ratio of around 100%!
I think you need to separate policies undertaken as a result of real need, and those undertaken based upon dogma.
As for ‘class war’ it’s not a matter of that, it’s a matter of identifying in whose interests the current lot are primarily working – and it’s pretty clear it’s not yours or mine!
Report abuse
Peter, this item concerns the entirely unjustified release of a prisoner under the most unusual circumstances bordering on downright Government corruption. It has precisely nothing to do with your juvenile, yes, I repeat that, juvenile, obsession with anti Tory ideology. Your comments when relevant are getting a little tedious, trumpeting out the same old theme of class warfare, when they come in the form they now do on a subject which has nothing whatever to do with your distorted views they become downright idiotic. Again a coach and horses can be driven through these comments but please be a good man and get off your hobby horse, it is so daft, boring and entirely incorrect.
I would have thought that the prostitution of a nations judicial system for the sake of garnering capital for a big global business would get your hackles rising to some tune – presumably, it hasn’t, so we see how much you really care about justice and principle.
Report abuse
Stuart,
You’re back! Funny how quiet you’ve been in defending the policies of the government you voted for since the election – on the other hand, I can understand why you might be keeping a low profile.
With respect to the Megrahi case, it’s highly unlikely that the man was anything to do with the Locekrbie bombing, and far more likely that the Syrians were at fault – Jim Swire, who strikes me as a reliable and credible man is firmly of the opinion that Megrahi is innocent – and I would suggest that Dr Swire has more of a interest in seeing justice done that anyone here.
The whole business of offering the Libyans up as defendants was a stitch-up in the first place, to satisfy US foreign policy initiatives.
Alex Salmond has clearly stated that the decision was made, by the Scottish Government, on medical grounds alone – the medical advice was perhaps incorrect, but given in good faith. It may well be that BP were lobbying as well – large companies are always seeking to gain political influence – but their lobbying had no influence in this case.
Perhaps you’d be good enough to point out where my figures on debt and GDP are wrong? They come from the Office of National Statistics so are pretty much unquestionable. If you have an alternative set of figures, I look forward to seeing them.
Please don’t just quote figures in raw cash terms – these are always distorted by the effect of inflation – the GDP to debt ratio is the only accurate way to compare debt levels from an historical perspective.
Report abuse
surely we are missing the point, this guy was innocent and just volunteered for honour to do the time to get Libya back in from the cold, i would rather they focused on getting the real perpetrator of the crime and who ordered it the man at the top Gaddafi! But they want to befriend him for oil so they let it go, its tragic
Report abuse
The relatives of the Lockerbie disaster are not convinced that Megrahi is guilty and Dr Swire who lost his daughter Flora was in full support of this man being released.He is only too aware that this situation may have been very corrupted by politics.
Daniel K is just trying to plug the rather lightweight book he has written about Gaddaffi.
Report abuse
Bit of a heavy topic for a small town MP isn’t it?
Wind your neck in mate and stop jumping on every bandwagon that passes your way. I’d leave this one to the big boys!
Report abuse
off piste, but have you tried runner bean chutney on toast, delicious. i think dan dan the pubic enquiry man could think of better campaigns involving his constituency
Report abuse
Errr, the what enquiry man?
Report abuse
I give some of these responses the same sort of credence that I did to some of those that commented on the Raole Moat issue. They are about as intelligent.
Just in case some of those that say Daniel should only comment on issues that are relevant to Shrewsbury and his constituents, are we to take it that if the MP for a constituency where villainy and corrupt practice has occurred and does nothing about it – other MPs are not to take it up. If this is seriously to be believed then god help parliamentary democracy and the rule of law in this country.
Even a blind man should be able to see that there is a “stench” surrounding the release of this man and the mere mention of BP daring to admit that it lobbied the government for a prisoner exchange with Libya should be more than sufficient to set the alarm bells ringing. This whole issue stinks to high heaven and it say’s little for our country if a “CONVICTED” (yes, I repeat, CONVICTED) mass murderer can be freed in exchange for oil exploration concessions in a country that by any international standards is a disgrace. Of course this is denied – that is why there should be a full scale open enquiry to get to the truth.
But seeing Bliar is still sucking up to this odious country, nothing that Labour did in any sphere at all surprises me, the least that concerned them was the feelings of the relatives of the 270+ dead.
I expected at least, an intelligent comment from Peter but what do we get, something entirely irrelevant based on his paranoia with regard to the Bullingdon Club. Sorry Peter you can’t blame them for this corruption but good try.
At least eva land brings up an entirely relevant point about Daniel’s book and if his motivation is as alleged, shame on him also but I would like to think it is not, rather that is is based on his knowledge of the Libyan regime.
We should all be clamouring for an enquiry, not just Daniel.
Report abuse
“the Raole Moat issue. They are about as intelligent”
If you could spell you may be able to comment on other’s intelligence yourself.
“But seeing Bliar is still sucking up to this odious country, nothing that Labour did in any sphere at all surprises me..”
I’m afraid that nailing your colours to the mast doesn’t help your case.
You aren’t Demanding Dan’s pseud are you?
Report abuse
I can think of one my… Vice admiral Benbow campaign.
Report abuse
Ah the public enquiry – the pointless, won’t change anything squanderer of public funds for no benefit other than to promote a political slanging match. In a time of cutting costs these wasteful exercises must surely be first for the chop. About as useful as the phone-in to the Eurovision Song Contest, but at least that raises money….
Report abuse
I demand a public enquiry as to why Daniel K has to jump on every available bandwagon? Does he ever have an original thought in his head?
Report abuse
I demand a public enquiry into this comment!
Report abuse
Yes he says a lot about Gaddaffi’s clothes style Stu but very little of any real political knowledge or substance.
With Daniel’s lack of presence at Westminster last year perhaps someone will write a book called Seeking Daniel!
BTW just because the guy has been convicted doesn’t mean to say he is guilty, as you well know. Cameron will not be rushing to look again into this for fear of what could be uncovered.
Report abuse
this guy is a good MP because he stands up for the town against the ghastly threat of an incinerator in harlescott as proposed by the multinational french firm veolia
Report abuse