What lies behind Brown’s silence on Megrahi release

There is another level to the Prime Minister’s decision to sit out the Libya/Lockerbie saga in stony silence.

Yes, there are UK/Libya trade upsides to the decision which the Prime Minister won’t want to jeopardise. There are post-devolution constitutional niceties to be observed. But this is also about the Scottish political battle.

From the moment Alex Salmond snatched power in Edinburgh, Gordon Brown and his team expected the SNP government to lay traps for the Westminster government, create friction points that would add to resentment against London.

The al-Megrahi release does not look like such a pre-meditated plot by the SNP but some who advise Gordon Brown think it has the capacity to turn round and hurt Mr Brown (even more than his silence is hurting him already).

They worry that if Mr Brown joins the US and others thwacking the SNP government for poor judgement he runs the risk of looking like a leader of a foreign power criticising the Scottish executive, galvanising opinion on this issue in the SNP’s favour, potentially even giving a shot in the arm to the campaign for independence.

So the plan remains to keep silent in London and let the Scottish Labour Party do the knocking… as they are about to do, along with other parties, in the brief emergency session of the Scottish Parliament.