LABOUR FALLS SILENT ON THE BBC

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With no 'Andrew Marr Show' today, the chance to hear Labour ministers being grilled over their stance towards Kenny MacAsklill's extremely controversial decision to release al Megrahi and, especially, over the dealings of senior Labour figures with the Libyan regime - foremost among them Lord Mandelson - in the lead up to that most controversial of releases, went begging at the BBC.

For the questions that need asking please read Not a Sheep's reports, linked to below:
http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2009/08/does-peter-mandelson-read-telegraph.html
http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2009/08/release-of-al-megrahi-was-linked-to_22.html

There being no 'Marr' to make Labour's life hell (like he would!!!), I tuned in instead - for the first time ever - to Radio 4's Broadcasting House. (I must add this programme to my cast of regulars.) Did I get to hear a Labour spokesman squirm on BH (as it likes to call itself)? No. Alex Salmond, however, was questioned (quite strongly) & the other interview - with a Conservative-backing QC - also fixed its eye firmly on the SNP's role rather than Labour's.

Oh well, there's always 'The World This Weekend'. It will surely put some Labourite through his paces - after all Shaun Ley is presenting. (Ha!). Again, no. The only interviewee on the subject was an American - and Kenny MacAskill was its focus.

If any of the already-widespread suspicions about the links between Labour and Libya, trade deals and the release of the Lockerbie bomber turn out to be true then the UK government could come seriously unstuck over them. The BBC should be trying to get to the bottom of them, with an objective eye. If they're rubbish, let them be examined and shown to be rubbish. Otherwise, the suspicions that they are true will linger like a bad smell. Come on Mandy, set the record straight! Come on BBC, give him the platform!

I really hope that the BBC is not trying (for partisan reasons) to keep all the fire focussed on the SNP and away from the Labour government. I don't think they are, but my suspicions are going to grow too if the interviews with Labour (on this subject) don't start flowing in soon.

As another rider to this story, I don't have the time (being a full-time worker) to monitor the BBC News Channel (aka News 24), so Labourites may be all over the place there & this post will lose its value. I will watch the channel for a while now & see. (Hope there's an attractive presenter (maybe Martine Croxall?). That's usually the only good thing about that most annoying of networks!)

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Well, News 24 is as annoying as ever (and Maxine Mawhinney is presenting), so I've had enough of that! The Scottish Labour Party are (as they have been for some days) far from silent, by the looks of things, but the UK Labour Party is lying low. Some comments by foreign office minister Ivan Lewis, advising the Scottish justice secretary to go ahead with the release of al Megrahi, are being covered in the Beeb's reporting, but Mr Lewis has not yet been interviewed (it appears).