Megrahi, the Scottish National Party's downfall.

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I wrote months ago of my anger at the Scottish National Party being mostly responsible for the release of the convicted mass murderer Aboelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, or the "Lockerbie bomber" in case any of you are in any doubt of who this killer is, so I thought I would update you on the situation since it is at least six months since his date of release on the grounds of having only THREE months to live.

I came across this piece when I googled his name and much to my disgust, and anyone else who has taken the same interest, I found, just as I thought would happen at the time of his release, that he is living a life of luxury, instead of rotting behind bars where he should have finished the life sentences handed out to him after his trial, and upheld after his feeble appeal.

I said at the time that the SNP would suffer at the elections, and suffer they did, and if there was any doubt in their minds that the Scottish people strongly disapproved of this deed, it will become even clearer at the elections next year once the votes have been counted to decide the Scottish Parliament.

Labour, in my mind had their input to this travesty of justice too, and was a factor in their defeat at the polls, but even so, the downfall of these two parties will be no consolation to the bereaved, especially when they read the progress report of the convicted mass murderer in the story below.

I hope all persons responsible for this disgrace will feel some kind of remorse, and as each day this slaughterer of innocent lives survives over his THREE months, they feel more and more a wrench of the guilt that should be burning inside them.

Then again, as we all know, Politicians HAVE no guilt, or Megrahi would not be living a life of luxury, and being treated as a hero in Lybia now.

Lets hope the likes of Kenny MacAskill, the "EX" Minister of Justice for Scotland and his buddies are never allowed to disgrace the Scottish Nation in this way again and will be stuck in the shadows of the back benches where they belong, keeping their heads and opinions as low as their morals are.




Libya

Lockerbie bomber Megrahi living in luxury villa six months after being at 'death's door'
The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is living with his family in a luxury villa in Libya six months after he was released from jail on compassionate grounds because he had less than three months to live.


By Andrew Alderson and Robert Mendick
Published: 9:00PM GMT 20 Feb 2010
Megrahi: Lockerbie bomber Megrahi living in luxury villa six months after being at 'death's door'
Megrahi: The latest disclosure will incense many of the relatives of those who died in the bomb blast in December 1988 Photo: AFP

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, no longer receives hospital treatment after ending the course of chemotherapy that he had been given after returning to his homeland last August.

Professor Karol Sikora, the London-based doctor who examined Megrahi and predicted he would be dead by last October, admitted this weekend that the fact the bomber is still alive might be "difficult" for the families of the 270 victims of the attack.



The latest disclosure will incense many of the relatives of those who died in the bomb blast in December 1988 when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in mid air over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 people on the ground.

Most did not want Megrahi released and they suspected he would live longer than the predicted three months.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed last September that the Libyan government had paid for the medical evidence which helped Megrahi, 57, to be released. The Libyans had encouraged doctors to say he had only three months to live.

The life expectancy of Megrahi was crucial because, under Scottish rules, prisoners can be freed on compassionate grounds only if they are considered to have this amount of time, or less, to live.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, ruled last August that Megrahi should be freed. Megrahi's release came after Libyan leaders warned that lucrative oil and trade deals with Britain would be cancelled if the bomber died in jail.

One leading prostate cancer specialist cast serious doubt yesterday on the wisdom of predicting that Megrahi had only three months to live – when a patient still had to undergo chemotherapy. Dr Chris Parker said it was extremely difficult to give an accurate prognosis for individual patients. "Studies show experts are very poor at trying to predict how long an individual patient will live for," he warned.

Megrahi received the chemotherapy drug Docetaxel – trade name Taxotere – shortly after returning to Libya.

Dr Parker, who is with the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital, said: "The average prognosis for survival after Docetaxel would be 12 months.

"It can vary enormously but it would be very unusual to live beyond two years."

Doctors in Libya supply monthly medical reports to Scottish authorities who can speak to Megrahi whenever they want. The conditions of his early release stipulate he must not leave Libya.

Megrahi, is now living in a spacious two-storey villa with his wife and their five grown-up children in a prosperous suburb of Tripoli, the Libyan capital.

The property has a spacious garden and an area where the family erects a large tent to entertain visitors for celebrations.

The property has a security gate and there is often a uniformed police officer sitting on a white chair outside.

The Megrahis, who are part of a prominent tribe, are well off and it is understood that his family was paid substantial compensation by the Libyan Government after he was jailed for life.

They are known to have urged Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, to get Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent, freed from his jail.

Prof Sikora, one of the examining doctors who was paid a consultancy fee last July to examine Megrahi, told The Sunday Telegraph this weekend: "My information from Tripoli is that it's not going to be long [before Megrahi dies].

"They stopped any active treatment in December and he has just been going downhill very slowly at home. He is on high doses of morphine [a painkiller] and it's any day now."

Prof Sikora said that he suspected that Megrahi was still alive because he had received a "psychological" boost from returning to his homeland and being reunited with his family.

"It's stimulated him to have a remarkable [short-term] recovery," he said. "It's difficult. The choice offered by the letter of the law was either three months to live, or nothing. You couldn't have a sliding scale."

Some prostate cancer patients have lived for years longer that their doctors predicted.

Prof Sikora said it was just possible that Megrahi would be alive in several years time but added: "It's highly unlikely. There is a 90 per cent chance he will die in the next few weeks.

"He is relatively young and has very aggressive, fast-moving disease."

Megrahi has always denied any involvement in the Lockerbie bombing. He withdrew his second appeal against conviction just two days before he was allowed to return to Libya.

Those close to him say he did so reluctantly because he was convinced it would improve his chances of being freed from a Scottish jail.

Megrahi could have been released on compassionate grounds without dropping his appeal – but he could not have been freed under a prisoner exchange programme if legal action was ongoing.

Until the last moment, the authorities made it clear they were considering both options.

Professor Sikora had a message to the relatives of the Lockerbie tragedy who are angered by Megrahi's release: "The quality of his life is not good – he is a dying man.

"Quite frankly, as an act of mercy, it is better that he dies at home rather than in prison."

However, one source involved in monitoring Megrahi's health suggested the bomber's condition has got no worse in the past six months.

The source said: "Megrahi is still the same as ever. His condition has not deteriorated. There is no sign of him dying any time yet but who knows? It's totally unpredictable."

I, Donald Swarbrick would like to thank the persons involved in the research, and printing of this article, on behalf of all those who care.

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World mysteries.

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The letter to Gordon Brown that I posted in this blog was the second letter I sent to him, and having received a reply to the first a couple of weeks later, from him, or more likely his secretary's secretary, I expected another this time.

Maybe it was the fact that the election was taking up his time and he, or his secretary never had time to act on it, but whatever reason, I never got a reply this time, and as he has just taken the steps I suggested in the said letter, by packing his bags and leaving number ten Downing Street, resigning his post as leader of the Labour party and Prime Minister of Britain, I am beginning to think he at least read it.

The first letter I composed to him was inflamed by the elimination of the ten pence tax rate, and other prominent moves that would make the poor of this country poorer, and the rich richer (more of a Tory policy) or basically getting the poorest of the taxpayers to bail the country out of it's crisis rather than the more well off.

Refusal to tighten the country's expenditure while forcing US to tighten our belts, going ahead with the costly ID cards, and replacing our nuclear weapons system at a cost of billions of pounds was also mentioned in the letter (although seemingly we can still afford that, regardless of which party gets in or how much more debt it puts us in) to which each subject was touched on, albeit lightly, but not to my satisfaction.

He did reimburse the lost money from the tax rate for that year, but only for that year, never reinstating it, and whether my letter had anything to do with it or not, I will never really know, as most of the country was up in arms over it, but I would like to think I had played my part.

As for the other subjects, he stubbornly stood by HIS beliefs, a fact that led to his downfall, one of the many other issues I warned him in my letter that would lead to his eviction from Downing Street, a fault, I pointed out to him, other Prime Ministers before him had also made.
It is all very well being stubborn in your beliefs, as long as it is in agreement with the electorate, but as we all know the biggest mistake politicians make is ignoring the people who put them there, and regardless of which party they represent, when they do this they are rejected.
It wasn't very difficult predicting the demise of Brown with all the blunders he and his party made, the problem we face now is that none of the present candidates are much better, that is why we have a hung parliament, NOT because we were disillusioned with any one party, but because we are disillusioned with them all.

Labour turning more Conservative, conservatives turning any way they could as long as it was to try and get away from the Labour policies, which meant no solid manifesto, and the Lib-Dems coming up with ideas that both the other two parties tried to cash in on was also a contributory factor.

We have a hung parliament because, not one of the parties installed enough faith in the public to give any of them a clear victory, and until one of them comes up with a sure and definite solution to the financial problems we now face, without it costing "US" the taxpayer who bailed out the banks too much deprivation, then we will be no further forward.

We the public, should never have been put in this position in the first place, and we should not be expected to use our hard earned cash to bail out the cities of the world, AGAIN!

Its time the banks took some responsibility, and paid back some of the money LOANED to them by US, from the profits they are now making, which would ease the burden on the public, a burden that they caused in the first place.
ALL PARTIES TAKE NOTE!

One consolation that has come out of all this is the end of Peter Mandelson's influence on the Prime Minister's decisions, another reason for Brown's downfall, as by introducing this arrogant clown into politics for a third dismal spell was no better than putting the noose around his own neck.

As I have asked before, where did all the money disappear to in the first place?
One year the banks were making big profits, the next, the world banking system goes into meltdown and all the money in the world vanishes, EXCEPT, THAT IS, all this money that is suddenly appearing to reimburse the world funds.

If every country was hit by the banking crisis, and all countries are in debt to the tune of BILLIONS, where did the trillions come from that we have all borrowed, and to whom are we paying these loans to, plus interest of course.

There is a lot more to this than meets the eye, trillions do not just disappear, and reappear into new and mysterious hands overnight, and as David Cameron takes over as the new Prime Minister (with the help of Nick Clegg's Lib-Dems) that is the answer I am more interested in at the moment, rather than who is going to lead us through the mess left by these mysterious hands.

WHO may I ask is in the position, or is willing to answer that question?

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The horseless carriage.

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It's high time governments and councils accepted the fact that the public have come to rely on the automobile, once known as the horseless carriage.
I use the term "horseless carriage" because it seems to me, that the authorities in this country still have the notion that we should be driving with a man walking in front of us waving a red flag, as they did in days of yore.

Speed bumps in unnecessary places, the failure to provide ample parking spaces, overcharging at the few parking facilities that are available, failing to maintain the road systems, failing to provide roads that can accommodate the volume of cars that now use our antiquated road structures, redirecting the money paid in road taxes to other sources when this money was supposed to go towards the upkeep of our roads, trying to push us into using the public transport that is just as antiquated as our roads and provides no privacy, a requirement the people of today prefer, (and why should they not?)are to name but a few things that should be taken into consideration.

The government in one hand needs the taxes paid by the motorist through road tax, tax on petrol, purchase tax, the new con of green taxes on some vehicles, and any other way they can think of extorting money from them.

As for councils, they gain by overcharging for car parks, paying to enter some cities or charge for the use of roads we have already paid for.

When you add up the amount of money extorted from the motorist by the authorities, and that the motorist prefers to pay rather than walk or use public transport, you have to wonder why they cannot accept the fact that the horseless carriage is here to stay, and provide for it rather that try to constrict it.

Provide large car parks with decent charges (preferably no charges at all) in and around our towns and cities which would save the congestion they are all worried about.
Realise that it is through their denial of the fact that the horseless carriage is here to stay and its their failure to provide for it that causes the congestion, also realise that they too are included as motorists, and are as guilty as the next person who prefers their privacy when traveling.

Another thing to consider is the fact that we have so many people employed in one way or another with these new horseless carriages, through manufacturing to selling and repairing them, that it would leave a big gap in the unemployment system if we were to stop using them, not to mention the deficit it would leave in the coffers of the country.

GOVERNMENTS AND COUNCILS ALIKE, TAKE HEED!

Horseless carriages are here to stay, make provisions for them, and make life easier for one and all.

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Poverty for pensioners thanks to Browns plunder.

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Here is an item I read in yahoo about pensioners, I think it was published in "THE TELEGRAPH" newspaper.


Myra Butterworth, 22:23, Monday 26 April 2010

Couples need to budget nearly £600,000 to cover the cost of their retirement, new figures have disclosed.

It means each pensioner needs an income more than double the basic state pension just to cover everyday costs such as food, petrol and clothing.

The annual expenditure is a third higher than five years ago, with retiring workers hit by a double whammy of falling income from their pensions and rising costs.

Laith Khalaf, a pensions expert at wealth managers Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Millions of people are sleepwalking into an impoverished old age. You cant expect to spend twenty or thirty years in retirement without stashing away a substantial amount of money while you are still working."

The latest figures, compiled by MGM Advantage, suggested the average household needs £564,227 to cover the cost of the first 20 years after quitting the workforce.

The calculation is based on annual household expenditure for those aged 65 to 74 at £23,107, compared with £14,926 for those aged 75 and over. Five years ago, the figures were £17,737 and £11,700 respectively.

The higher cost of living in London means an average retired couple needs a total of £668,553 over 20 years while the lower cost of living in the North East means households need £473,178.

Chris Evans, chief executive of MGM Advantage, said: "There is significant pressure on pensioner income. Those people retiring today can expect to live for twenty years but with annuity rates falling and the cost of living rising, funding retirement is a difficult task.

"With such large regional discrepancies in the cost of living in retirement, we wouldn't be surprised if more people considered relocating to other less expensive parts of the country in order to search out a better quality of life.

As expenditure has risen, pension incomes have declined as investment companies factor in the cost of the aging population and lower returns during the financial crisis.

A pension pot of £564,227 currently secures an annual income of £35,806, compared with £37,656 five years ago, according to Hargreaves Lansdown.

The basic state pension of £97.65 per week equates to £10,155 per year for a couple in retirement.

Only the very wealthy and those in the public sector with generous gold-plated schemes can guarantee a financially secure retirement, experts said.

Ros Altmann, a pensions expert and governor at the London School of Economics, said: "We have a real pension crisis and politicians have not woken up to it. Most peoples pensions are not going to deliver the figures they would have expected when they first started saving unless of course, you happen to work in the public sector."

Separate research by equity release specialists Key Retirement Solutions suggested pensioners are entering retirement with average debts of £36,000, including credit cards, loans, mortgages, and overdrafts.

With more immediate financial concerns such as avoiding having their homes repossessed and covering the cost of rising petrol bills, charities said households were failing to save enough for their retirement.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director at Age UK, said: "This report is another powerful reminder of the need for adequate pension provisions. Its not surprising many people are shocked by the drop in income and standards of living they experience at retirement."


Gordon Brown still has no conscience about his plundering of the pension funds which added to pensioners problems.
We did our bit to keep the pensioners that were around when we were working, with the pledge that we would be looked after in our retirement but quite the opposite has occurred.
We are among the poorest pensioners in Europe, with our savings for retirement in private, or work pensions, taxed three times before it reaches us, and a state pension that is impossible to live on thanks to Margaret Thatcher doing away with the earnings related pension, and Labour plundering our pension schemes.
Why in the world should we vote for any of them?

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Tory and Labour running scared.

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Since Nick Clegg outshone his opposition in their last debate all Tory and Labour can think of is how to try and degrade the surging Lib-Dems rather than fight for their survival by having faith in their own policies.

The fact that the knives have been out for Nick and the Lib-Dems proves that they are now a force to reckon with, and that the other parties are running scared of a party that they had discounted in every election till now.

This is just the kick up the backside the Tory and Labour candidates needed.
All to often they have been so confident that it was a race between them, and all they had to do was to outdo each other to win the election, then once in, all the promises made were forgotten about and they governed to suit themselves, ignoring the wishes of the general public who put them there.

Tory and Labour must have as much faith in their own manifestos as the general public has if they have to stoop so low, by using tactics that attempt to discredit the Lib-Dems rather than win the public vote by assuring them that they have the right manifesto to put this country back on its feet.

"THEN AGAIN, WE ALL KNOW HOW LOW POLITICIANS ARE PREPARED TO STOOP."

We all knew both Labour and Tory were all washed up, but were afraid to vote for another party in case our vote was wasted.

NOT SO NOW, we know our votes were wasted on the other two parties in elections of the recent past, history is proof of that, and the real change is with the Lib-Dems according to the manifestos declared by all for this election.

We know now that our votes will count, and can now put our X in the box where our convictions lie, which will make this coming election all the more interesting.

Nick Clegg has shown the two arrogant parties that it is time they listened to the electorate when in or out of power, so now perhaps, they will sit up and take notice, learn the lesson dished out to them and eat the humble pie that has been well and truly place in front of them.

The Lib-Dems certainly can be no worse than the present government given the disasters they have laid at our doors in the last few years, and considering the Tory party has no interest in the working man, also given the fact that their policies are not much different from Labours, the two parties could well amalgamate rather than face each other in combat, which they may well have to do in the next debate, when they have to come face to face with the WRATH of Nick Clegg this time.

This time they will not agree with him the way they did in the last debate, but they will have to come up with some NEW ideas of their own, THAT is the only way they can prove their worth to a disillusioned public, NOT go down the road of OLD politics by using tactics to discredit the opposition.

We want responsible adults with a strong manifesto to lead us forward, not stupid schoolboys who think they are still fighting in the playground, and so far Nick Clegg is the only one who can hold his head high enough to make us sit up and take notice.

When it comes down to the nitty gritty, they all will have to remember, that it is US and OUR wishes they will have to take notice of if they want to be elected, not score points off each other.

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The economic recovery.

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I find it very annoying to say the least when I listen to the plans the budding parties have for our economic recovery.
All three of the main parties agree that the credit crunch has left us with billions of pounds deficit in the economy, and that WE the taxpayers will have to pay extra taxes to recover the money (plus interest) on the loans.
WE have to pay extra taxes to recover OUR money that THEY loaned to the banks with no mention of the banks repaying any of the loans, or any allowances made in the economic recovery for any such money forthcoming.

It seems to me that we loaned the money, and we have to pay back the money to ourselves, (plus interest) while the banks get off Scot free, and the bankers walk away with large bonuses every year.

FOR WHAT?

Conning us out of billions of pounds they managed to evaporate into thin air.

I wonder how my bank manager would respond if I asked for a loan, suggesting the same repayment method, which would be, having them repay the loan, "to me" that I received. (With interest of course.)

Somehow or other I think I would be shown the door, which makes me ask the question.
Why are WE lumbered with the debts THEY owe us?

We the taxpayer managed to accrue the billions of pounds that was loaned to the banks, albeit while being heavily taxed, but why do we need to have EXTRA taxes added on to accumulate this money again when we managed to save the billions without these extra taxes.

The government borrowed money over and above the money the taxpayers were forced to donate.

Where did this money come from when the credit crunch is supposed to be a world wide crises?
Who are we paying these loans to with the added interest?

I thought "MONOPOLY" was a board game, but it seems to me that the governments of this world are playing it on a world wide scale, using imaginary money that can be won or lost with the only losers being the taxpayers.

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Letter to Gordon Brown.

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Below is a letter Gordon Brown will receive from me during the coming week.
You, my faithful followers have the chance to read it before him.
I hope it meets your approval.


22 March 2010


Dear Mr Brown

Here are some points you might like to ponder on transit from number ten Downing Street to your new abode that you will be forced to take residency in after the election.

As your party were in charge during the financial crisis, you should have had the gumption to put conditions on the ridiculously large loans you dished out to the banks, mainly a definite clause laid down on a repayment system, and a cap on the vulgar bonuses received by the greedy team of banking management, until the said loans of billions of taxpayer’s money has been repaid.

Your budgets and manifestos since do not take into consideration any of the money being paid back by the banks, only by the taxpayer whose money it was in the first place.
Perhaps it is time you realised that the majority of voters come from the poorest paid of the country, some through no fault of their own, which makes them no less clever than you or your fellow politicians, and are very capable of working out who, or what party is the best way forward.
Taxing these people more by doing away with the 10p income tax basement level is no way to gain their votes, and if you think that by returning the money fleeced from them last year will make its existence go unnoticed this year you are sadly mistaken as the difference it makes to a small wage is very significant in comparison to the large pay-packet you and your kind receive.

Although the SNP has taken the brunt of the Megrahi affair and do not deserve to be put back in power in Scotland (the coming election will see to that) your party too influenced that decision, and is responsible for many other murderers, and sex offenders being released from prison only to commit the same offences soon after their release.
It is time the courts in our country were allowed to punish crimes rather than give in to the minority who think leniency is the answer, and are proved to be wrong time and time again much to the disgust of the victims and decent citizen of Britain who suffer through these stupid actions.

It seems to me and the majority of the voters that you have stopped listening to us, the people who put your party in power with the assumption that you were there to carry out OUR wishes NOT your own, and are turning this country into a dictatorship rather than a democracy.

If you were worth voting for you would forget about introducing ID cards, a system that the biggest majority of this country do not want whether we could afford them or not.
If there was ever any doubt in your mind of your betrayal, your persistence on going through with such a ridiculous scheme that we can ill afford until this country is back on its feet is one example of you not listening to the people who put you in power.

Another example is the Trident missile that will cost the taxpayer billions at a time when we are already over taxed thanks to your generosity towards the bankers, and your failure to consolidate a repayment scheme.

You tell US to tighten OUR belts while you go on squandering OUR money and expect to be re-elected.

You crucify the poorest of this country’s citizens, who as I have said make up the majority of the voters, and expect to be re-elected.

You do nothing about the leniency shown to our criminals, have no consideration for victims of crime, and expect to be re-elected.

These are the concerns of the people who put your party in power, and these are the concerns you should be addressing.

It is bad enough your betrayal, but not to have the sense to see where you are going wrong, treating the electorate like dummies and being stubborn enough to stick to plans that the general public abhor gives them no confidence in you or your party, so if you have not already made plans to move out of number ten, I suggest you do so.

The saddest thing about politics at present is the fact that none of the main parties seem to have the sense to act on the voters’ wishes and would rather act like a bunch of schoolboys in the House of Commons trying to score points off each other rather than get down to the reality of putting the country to rights.

Any party that has the sense to act on the points I have given you to ponder will show that they have the voters concerns in mind, which will show us a way out of this recession without punishing the very people whose money rescued the country in the first place.
It is not too late to show some sense, and give the voters SOME hope in the coming election, and maybe delay your departure from number ten.


Yours sincerely



D. Swarbrick.

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