Esler, MacAskill and Megrahi

First let me say this. I fully agree with the Scottish Government's decision to release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. Also, for reasons that go way beyond this particular case, I took great pleasure in Scotland being able to assert it's independence in this matter.

I watched Newsnight last night. Gavin Esler was interviewing Scottish Justice Minster Kenny MacAskill who was, it must be said, utterly out of his depth to the point of being embarrassing. I don't ever recall seeing a politician so over-coached, so unable to come remotely off his script, so unable to think on his feet.

Esler, for his part, employed an unnecessarily aggressive and hectoring tone and seemed to base his entire argument on the following points:

What about compassion for the victim's families?
Megrahi served less than 14 days per victim.

MacAskill, sounding more like a broken record than a human being, didn't actually answer Esler. He just parroted on about "compassion" and "compunction" and said absolutely nothing. Here's what he should have said instead.

What about compassion for the victim's families?
This man is almost certainly innocent. Let him go home to die with his family. The dogs on the street know that this crime was state sponsored. He was a pawn. I hereby declare that we, the Scottish Government, will begin a public inquiry to bring the true perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice. This is how we will show compassion for the victim's families.

Megrahi served less than 14 days per victim.
Fuck off Esler. This man has less than 3 months to live. Let him die in the arms of his family. If he dies in prison he will have served less than 14.1 days per victim. Stop asking stupid questions. Where's Paxman?