Friday, July 23, 2010

Should Alex Salmond and Kenny MacAskill appear before a US senate committee over the early release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi?

Well... they have appear to have refused.. according to this BBC article.

But should they have appeared?

NO!

They are the elected representatives of the Scottish parliament, and answerable to them alone. They are, as is The British Prime minister accountable to their own house, and in no way, shape manner or form are they accountable to any other house.

Can you imagine George W Bush being, former President of the USA being called before a select committee of parliament?

Ridiculous.

UK politicians are in no shape, way manner or form accountable to the USA, and therefore should refuse on principle, refuse to appear before any committee of any elected body there. The same applies to appearing before the EU parliament or any where else. The reverse is also the case, I would expect an elected US politician to refuse the same.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Greetings. The marketing of terror has empowered the most debased and power greedy in Congress. On issues like this, there are only two camps or two sides to a fence to sit upon: pro terror or anti terror. Couple this with the exceedingly broad powers of congressional committees, all of which are controlled by the majority party, have the power to supoena witnesses and its like giving a drunkard keys to the liquor cabinet. Trouble is inevitable. One need only reflect back to the horrible abuses of the Commitee on Unamerican Activities during the McCarthy era to guage the true powers and potential threats of Congressional committees when they assert their investigative powers. Given that the two party political system has been completely overrun with partisan warfare, these committees are now the favored staging grounds for those in Congress looking for a quick but juicy soundbyte for the press or to attack a group or party opposed to the committee chairperson's party. This all perfectly fits into their grand scheme of waging partisan battles. It is very ugly in Washington these days. Foreign officals should not submit to the whipping post jurisdication of Congressional commitees where there is obviously no legitimate policy purpose of an inquiry.

berenike said...

But how fun was George Galloway At the US Senate?