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 Eastern
Edinburgh East and Musselburgh 2007-2011
Assumed office
3 May 2007
Preceded bySusan Deacon
Majority2233 (7.3%)
Member of the Scottish Parliament
for Lothians
In office
6 May 1999 – 3 May 2007
Personal details
Born (1958-04-28) 28 April 1958 (age 66)
Edinburgh
NationalityScottish
Political partyScottish National Party
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh
OccupationLawyer
Websitewww.kennymacaskill.co.uk

Kenneth "Kenny" Wright MacAskill (born 28 April 1958) is the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Eastern, formerly Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2007. He was previously a regional MSP for Lothian since 1999, and had been Shadow Justice and Home Affairs Minister.

Born in Edinburgh, MacAskill was educated at Linlithgow Academy and Edinburgh University, and was a senior partner in a law firm. He was a long standing member of the SNP's National Executive Committee and has been National Treasurer and Vice Convener of Policy. In 2004 Kenny wrote a book entitled Building a Nation - Post Devolution Nationalism in Scotland. He has since edited another book Agenda for a New Scotland - Visions of Scotland 2020 and has co-authored two books on the Scottish Diaspora, Global Scots - Voices From Afar and Wherever the Saltire Flies, with the former First Minister Henry McLeish.

Background, early life and career

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 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.

Member of the Scottish Parliament (1999 - )

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 leadership. Upon their election as leader and deputy leader respectively MacAskill was selected to be the SNP's deputy 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.

Cabinet Secretary for Justice (2007 -)

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]

MacAskill won election to a redrawn constituency of Edinburgh Eastern in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.[4] Despite notionally facing a deficit of 550 votes,[5] MacAskill won by over 2000 votes.[4]

Pan Am Flight 103

Main article: Release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

On 19 August 2009, MacAskill rejected an application by Libya to transfer to their custody Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted of the Pan Am Flight 103 bomb that killed 270 people, acknowledging that "the American families and Government had an expectation or were led to believe that there would be no prisoner transfer." [6] "Immediately after announcing this decision,"[7] however, MacAskill authorised al-Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds. Megrahi had served 8½ years of a life sentence, but doctors certified that he had developed prostate cancer and had "only a very short period of time to live".[8][9] The Justice Secretary has discretionary authority to order such a release, and MacAskill has taken sole responsibility for the decision.[10][11]

Megrahi died on 20 May 2012.

Reaction

In the United States, whence 180 of the 270 victims came, the decision met with broad hostility. Political figures including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out against it,[12][13] and families of the victims expressed indignation over the decision.[14] FBI director Robert Mueller, who had been a lead investigator in the 1988 bombing, wrote a highly critical open letter to MacAskill.[15] Former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish was critical of Mueller's attack on the decision.[16]

In Britain, reaction was divided. Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray, former First Minister Jack McConnell, and former Scottish Office minister Brian Wilson criticised the decision,[17][18] while Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, former Labour MP Tam Dalyell and former British ambassador to Libya Richard Dalton publicly supported it.[19][20] Ian Galloway and Mario Conti, representatives of the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church respectively, also spoke in favour of the release.[21]

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."[22] Saif al-Islam Gaddafi reiterated his belief in Megrahi's innocence commenting that the Justice Secretary had "made the right decision" and that history would prove this to be the case.[23] A letter in support of MacAskill's decision was sent to the Scottish Government on behalf of former South African President Nelson Mandela.[24]

The Scottish Parliament was recalled from its summer break, for the third time since its creation, to receive a statement from and question MacAskill.[25] The opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament passed amendments criticising the decision and the way it was made, but no motions of confidence in MacAskill or the Scottish Government were tabled.[26]

After MacAskill won re-election to the Scottish Parliament in 2011, a Scottish National Party supporter said that the decision had been mentioned by very few voters during the election campaign.[27]

See also

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. ^ a b "Scottish election: SNP changes Edinburgh political map". BBC News. 6 May 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  5. ^ Dinwoodie, Robbie (30 March 2011). "Key Holyrood election battles". The Herald. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  6. ^ UK Cabinet Office, Cabinet Secretary's Review of Papers Relating to the Release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi 11 ¶ 31 (Feb. 7, 2011) available at www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/20110207-megrahi-review-report.pdf
  7. ^ Id., 12 ¶ 32.
  8. ^ [1][dead link]
  9. ^ "Cancer expert says Megrahi is not responding to treatment". The Herald. 2009-08-20.
  10. ^ "Transcript: Scotland official talks of Lockerbie release". Cable News Network. 2009-08-20. Retrieved 2009-08-25.
  11. ^ "Lockerbie bomber debate - as it happened". Scotsman. 2009-08-24. Retrieved 2009-08-25.
  12. ^ Adam, Karla (21 August 2009). "Man Convicted in Lockerbie Bombing Is Released From Scottish Prison". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  13. ^ Carrell, Severin (21 August 2009). "Barack Obama attacks decision to free Lockerbie bomber". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  14. ^ See, e.g., http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/08/20/scotland.lockerbie.bomber/index.html; http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/20/lockerbie-scotland-usa-release; 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; http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/20/lockerbie-bomber-release-libya-obama
  15. ^ "The full letter from the FBI Director on the Lockerbie bomber release". The Daily Telegraph. London. 22 August 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  16. ^ FBI chief's attack 'out of order' - McLeish.
  17. ^ See http://www.publicservantscotland.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=10472; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/6080538/Kenny-MacAskill-to-face-furious-MSPs-over-Lockerbie-bomber-release.html; http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/23/gordon-brown-letter-gaddafi-lockerbie; Brian Wilson (2009-08-21). "Lockerbie bomber: The SNP's Libya stunt has shamed my nation". The Daily Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group Limited. Retrieved 2009-08-24.
  18. ^ http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5iCpNccRWlg_qME4nocYStu9vB_pQ; http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/28/lockerbie-bomber-saif-gaddafi
  19. ^ "Alex Salmond defends release of Lockerbie bomber". The Daily Telegraph. London. 23 August 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  20. ^ [2], BBC News.
  21. ^ FBI chief's attack 'out of order' - Conti, BBC News, 24 August 2009.
  22. ^ Mackey, Robert (21 August 2009). "Lockerbie, the Unanswered Questions". New York Times.
  23. ^ Carrell, Severin (28 August 2009). "Efforts to release Lockerbie bomber linked with trade, says Gaddafi's son". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  24. ^ "Mandela backs Lockerbie decision". BBC. 30 August 2009. {{cite news}}: Text "9-08-30" ignored (help)
  25. ^ "Holyrood recall over freed bomber". BBC News. 2009-08-20.
  26. ^ SNP defeated over bomber release, BBC News, 2 September 2009.
  27. ^ Hannan, Martin (6 May 2011). "Martin Hannan: The battle for independence starts now". Edinburgh Evening News. Retrieved 7 May 2011.

External links

Scottish Parliament

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Preceded by Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh
2007–2011 		Succeeded by
Constituency abolished
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