Would Cameron have done a similar Gaddafi deal?
Aren’t dirty deals sometimes necessary?
The Tories, quite rightly in political terms, are trying to squeeze as much as possible from the latest revelations suggesting that the Lockerbie bomber’s release was one of the prices that the Labour government seems to have been prepared to pay as part of an oil deal with the Libyans.
But what would a Cameron government have done in such a situation? Would it, in the interests of ensuring energy supplies, have followed exactly the same thinking as went on within the Labour government two years ago?
My guess is that a Tory government would have acted in the same way.
Where I think that Labour is going wrong here is in trying to cover up what has happened and by hiding behind the Scottish dimension. Why not come out and say that the paramount objective was energy and the need to open up new areas? A reference to Russia’s aggressive energy strategy would underline the point.
What’s becoming clear is that the truth will out – why not get in with their explanation first?