Lockerbie and the Special Relationship

One of the most tedious aspects of the UK-US relationship is the fretting that happens in Britain each and every time something happens that could possibly be construed as “damaging” the “special relationship”. The tone of the commentary that follows or accompanies any such event always makes it clear that the sanctity of the Anglo-American relationship should have trumped all other considerations.

Naturally, the decision to let Abdebaset Ali al-Megrahi go home to die in Libya is one such example of this phenomenon. Iain Dale, for instance, has a post headlined “How will the Al-Megrahi Decision Affect US/UK Relations?” Like that’s the most important issue here! One can disagree with Kenny MacAskill’s decision and there are perfectly good grounds for doing so. Fearing that the Americans, no matter how reasonably, might be upset comes a long way down the list of acceptable reasons for thinking that the SNP have got this one wrong.