[What follows is the text of a press release regarding the Edinburgh Festival Fringe production of the play The Lockerbie Bomber:]
The writer of a new play about the Lockerbie bombing believes the truth has been covered up, resulting in Scotland being reduced today to the level of a corrupt banana republic.
Alan Clark, whose play The Lockerbie Bomber is being staged for the first time at the Edinburgh Fringe next month, says: “I believe the truth has been covered up for nearly twenty-five years. We shake our heads in disbelief as we hear allegations of evidence withheld. Evidence fabricated. Witnesses paid for their testimony. Even serious allegations that members of the Scottish prosecution team at the Camp Zeist trial perverted the course of justice.
“If that were another country, it would rightly be ridiculed but this actually is Scotland today. In the eyes of the world, I believe Scottish justice, often held up as a shining example of fairness and decency, is being reduced to the level of a corrupt, banana republic.
“As one of the characters in the play says: 'Sooner or later, to protect itself, the Scottish Government will have to cast the Crown Office adrift and abandon the fiction that Megrahi’s conviction is safe.'”
When Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, 270 people from 21 countries perished and it remains the worst terrorist atrocity ever committed in the UK. Its consequences continue to reverberate round the world and yet, after nearly a quarter of a century, the truth remains elusive.
Carefully researched, The Lockerbie Bomber looks at the bombing from three different perspectives: the victims' families; journalists investigating the case; and the US and UK security services engaged in covering up what happened.
Dr Jim Swire, who lost a daughter on Pan Am 103, was at the premiere and commented: “This is a searing and soul-searching drama of international significance which dramatically shows how absolute power corrupts absolutely and how individuals and nations are diminished by the lies told in their names.”
Herman Grech of the Times of Malta added: “The play struck me because it recalls the bombing of the aircraft in its vivid, horrific detail. But most of all, the script challenges the audience into thinking whether, beyond the odd newspaper headline, this could have been one of the grossest miscarriages of justice of our times.”
The play is sponsored by solicitors Mitchells Roberton, The BenRiach Distillery Company, accountants FL Walker & Co, financial advisers The Wealth Partnership and Tryst Gymnastics Club.
The Lockerbie Bomber will be performed by Nugget Theatre Company at C Venues in Edinburgh's Chambers Street on July 31-August 13 daily at 12 noon.
The comparison of Scotland to a "banana-republic" ('B-R') does not hold.
ReplyDeleteWhile B-R's come in various forms, the following is common for the vast majority:
1. The people is totally aware that the press is not to be trusted; being an instrument in the hands of those having power in the moment.
2. The people is politically very active, knowing that it will pay and be blamed, if it allows the most rotten apples to maintain their seat.
3. When corruption and injustice happens, at least one political force will point it out very clearly and explicitly.
4. New legislation, not the least of constitutional character, undergoes massive scrutiny, often followed by protests, and so can not easily be sneaked through parliament.
5. Blind loyalty to other nations is strongly frowned upon, due to personal and national pride and freedom.
6. The judicial system is rotten and self-protecting, established by the government, and for the government.
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Scoring only on the last one, out of six, is not sufficient to justify Scotland´s comparison to a B-R.
Ouch!
ReplyDelete