Does Scottish poll vindicate Brown’s silence on Megrahi?

Interesting poll this morning in the Scottish edition of the Daily Mail, the first test of Scottish opinion since the Lockerbie bomber’s return to Libya.

According to the YouGov research, 51 per cent of Scottish voters oppose the Scottish Justice Secretary’s decision to let Mr al-Megrahi go home, but 42 per cent think it was the right decision.

That is a pretty high approval rating for a decision that has been internationally reviled.

Although Labour strategists are saying the SNP’s decision is out of tune with working-class sympathies in Scotland and will give them something to work on attacking the SNP as soft on crime in the Glasgow by-election and beyond, I think some of those who have been telling Gordon Brown to stay clear of the subject will think the poll is a vindication of the decision, suggesting that opinion in Scotland is finely balanced and could tip more in the SNP’s favour if the UK government was thought to be piling in against the Edinburgh one.