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Kenny MacAskill

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Kenny MacAskill
MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Justice
Assumed office
17 May 2007
First MinisterAlex Salmond
Preceded byCathy Jamieson
(as Minister for Justice)
Member of the Scottish Parliament
for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh
Member for Lothians 1999-2007
Assumed office
3 May 2007
Preceded bySusan Deacon
Majority1,382 (4.6%)
Personal details
Born (1958-04-28) 28 April 1958 (age 66)
Edinburgh
NationalityScottish
Political partyScottish National Party
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh

Kenny MacAskill (born 28 April 1958) is a Scottish National Party politician, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2007.

Background and family life

MacAskill was born in Edinburgh and was educated at Linlithgow Academy before studying law at the University of Edinburgh. After completing his training at a firm in Glasgow, he set up Erskine MacAskill. He is married with two sons.

Early political career

He came to prominence inside the SNP through his activities in the left wing 79 Group and became a party office bearer. In the 1980s he led the "Can't Pay, Won't Pay" campaign in opposition to the Poll Tax. It was widely known that he often disagreed politically with Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP through the 1990s, and he was at one stage viewed as belonging to the SNP Fundamentalist camp, being perceived to be allied to figures such as Jim Sillars and Alex Neil within the party.

After MacAskill became on MSP in 1999 upon the establishment of the Scottish Parliament as a regional list member for the Lothians he moderated his political position, seeing the development of the Scottish Parliament as the most achievable route for Scotland to become an Independent Nation State. In this respect he was regarded as having adopted a gradualist approach to Scottish independence in place of his previous fundamentalist position. He was one of former SNP leader John Swinney's closest supporters.

In 1999 MacAskill was detained in London before the Euro 2000 second leg play-off match between Scotland and England on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly.[1] As he was not charged with any crime the incident did not affect his position within the SNP and he won re-election at the 2003 election.

In 2004, after John Swinney stood down as SNP party leader, Kenny MacAskill backed the joint leadership ticket of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. He had initially intended to stand for deputy leader himself on a joint ticket with Nicola Sturgeon, who would have sought the leadership. He gave way when Salmond reconsidered his earlier decision not to seek re-election to the leaders position. Upon their election as leader and depute leader respectively MacAskill was selected to be the SNP's depute leader in the Scottish Parliament, making him the shadow Deputy First Minister.

MacAskill authored a book, 'Building a Nation - Post Devolution Nationalism in Scotland', which was launched at the SNP's 2004 annual conference in Inverness. He has since edited another book 'Agenda for a New Scotland - Visions of Scotland 2020' and has co-authored 'Global Scots - Voices From Afar' with former First Minister Henry McLeish.

As Justice Secretary

For the 2007 Scottish Parliament election MacAskill was top of the SNP's party list for the Lothians region. He stood in the Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency, winning that seat from the Scottish Labour Party with a 13.3% swing to give a majority of 1,382. This was the first time the SNP had ever won a parliamentary seat in Edinburgh. After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, MacAskill became the Cabinet Secretary for Justice.

One of MacAskill's first acts as a cabinet secretary was to lift the ban on alcohol sales at international rugby union games held at Murrayfield Stadium.[2]

MacAskill also insisted that the 2007 terror attack on Glasgow Airport was not committed by 'home-grown' terrorists in that the suspects were not "born or bred" in Scotland but had merely lived in the country for a "period of time".[3]

Release of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi

On 20 August 2009 MacAskill released Pan Am Flight 103 bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi on 'compassionate grounds'. Megrahi had served 8 and half years of a life sentence. MacAskill ordered the release so that Megrahi, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer,[4] could return to his native Libya to die.[5]

American reaction

In America, whence most of the victims came, the decision met with almost universal hostility. Families of the victims were "outraged and dismayed" by the decision, calling it "despicable," "ludicrous," "appalling," "heartbreaking," an "absolutely horrible decision," and "an absolutely disgusting disgrace."[6][7][8][9] This action was called "absolutely wrong" by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,[10] and "an outrage" and a "caving in" by Senator Frank Lautenberg.[7] President Barack Obama denounced the decision and Attorney General Eric Holder said that there was "no justification for releasing this convicted terrorist whose actions took the lives of 270 individuals."[9] Senator John Kerry, the former Democratic Presidential candidate, said that the decision “turn[s] the word ’compassion’ on its head.”[11] Former FBI director Robert Mueller, who had been a lead investigator in the 1988 bombing, was "outraged at [the] decision, blithely defended on the grounds of 'compassion'" and called it "as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice."[12] Mueller took the unusual step of writing a highly disparaging open letter to Mr MacAskill.[12]

The New York Times opined that "[f]or many Americans, his release rekindled the agony and anguish of loss and provoked questions about the notions of compassion and justice used by Scotland to justify its decision."[13] The Chicago Tribune said that "MacAskill's self-praising paean to his own mercy ... mocked [the] victims" and was "feckless."[14]

British reaction

Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader, said that "[t]he SNP's handling of this case has let down Scotland. Kenny MacAskill's conduct has damaged the Scottish Justice system and, in turn, Scotland's international reputation."[15] Conservative leader David Cameron, called the decision "the product of some completely nonsensical thinking."[16] The hero's welcome for Megrahi engendered by MacAskill's decision was castigated by both Alex Salmond and David Miliband, the British foreign secretary.[13] Writing in the Telegraph, former Scottish Office minister Brian Wilson wrote that the decision "shamed" Scotland, and co-opted an anti-warn slogan to sum up his anger: "Not in our name, Mr MacAskill."[17]

Former MP Tam Dalyell said that MacAskill "ha[d] arrived at the right decision on compassionate grounds...." Ian Galloway, the convener of the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland, said that "justice is not lost in acting in mercy," and Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Libya, said while he understood public anger about the release, "there are not good reasons why anybody convicted of that crime should be excepted from normal rules which apply for considering release on compassionate grounds."[18] John Mosey, a priest who lost a daughter on Pan Am Flight 103, expressed his disappointment that halting Megrahi’s appeal before it went to court meant that the public would never hear "this important evidence — the six separate grounds for appeal that the SCCRC felt were important enough to put forward, that could show that there’s been a miscarriage of justice."[19]

Media reaction in Britain was divided. The Times[20] and the English edition of The Daily Telegraph condemned Megrahi's release.[21] By contrast, The Scotsman,[22] The Herald,[23] The Independent,[24] and the Scottish edition of the Telegraph called it controversial, but the right decision.[25]

The Scottish Parliament has been recalled from its summer break to discuss MacAskill's decision.[26] This is only the third time in its ten year history that the Parliament has been recalled, the previous two occasions being necessitated by the deaths of Donald Dewar and the Queen Mother.[26] The Scottish Liberal Democrats had had a prior request to recall Parliament turned down, because Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson had ruled that it would be more appropriate to discuss the decision after it had been made.[26]

References

  1. ^ Arrest incident 'closed', insists SNP, BBC News, 25 November 1999
  2. ^ Murrayfield toasts lifting of drinks ban, The Times 9 June 2007
  3. ^ Terrorists not 'home-grown', BBC News 1 July 2007
  4. ^ Cancer expert says Megrahi is not responding to treatment, The Herald, 20 August 2009.
  5. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6803849.ece?token=null&offset=84&page=8
  6. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/08/20/scotland.lockerbie.bomber/index.html
  7. ^ a b http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/20/lockerbie-scotland-usa-release
  8. ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6061461/Lockerbie-bomber-Abdelbaset-Ali-Mohmed-Al-Megrahi-leaves-Scotland-bound-for-Libya.html
  9. ^ a b http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/20/lockerbie-bomber-release-libya-obama
  10. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/20/AR2009082000545.html?hpid=topnews
  11. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/world/europe/21lockerbie.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
  12. ^ a b http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6073466/The-full-letter-from-the-FBI-Director-on-the-Lockerbie-bomber-release.html
  13. ^ a b http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/world/europe/22lockerbie.html?_r=1&hp
  14. ^ http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/chi-0821edit1aug21,0,1138523.story
  15. ^ http://www.publicservantscotland.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=10472
  16. ^ http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5iCpNccRWlg_qME4nocYStu9vB_pQ
  17. ^ [1]
  18. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8212285.stm
  19. ^ Mackey, Robert (21 August 2009). "Lockerbie, the Unanswered Questions". News Blog. New York Times. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  20. ^ [2], The Times.
  21. ^ [3], The Daily Telegraph.
  22. ^ [4], The Scotsman
  23. ^ [5], The Herald.
  24. ^ [6], The Independent.
  25. ^ [7], The Daily Telegraph.
  26. ^ a b c Holyrood recall over freed bomber, BBC News, 20 August 2009.


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