Lockerbie

(guardian newspaper)

There has been nothing in the newspapers about Swine Flu for at least five minutes – does that mean that the pandemic is over?

However, the English newspapers are full of stories linked to the Lockerbie Air Disaster of 1988.

The British are upset with the Libyans, the American’s are pissed (off) with the Scottish and the French are … well …. just complaining about ….everything.

The reason for all this is that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi; the man convicted for the bombing, has been released on compassionate grounds and returned to Libya from the Scottish jail where he has been sine 2001.

In December 1988 I was working in the Christmas Pantomime at the Hackney Empire, London, and one weekend I received a phone call from an old friend, Bill, living in New York.

He had the chance to get cheap plane tickets to Britain and wondered if he and a friend, whose name I have shamefully forgotten, could come for a long weekend.

I was delighted. I hadn’t seen Bill for several years and his role as my host in New York when I fell in love establishing him as an essential friend at a pivotal time.

His advice when i asked him if i should take flowers to meet you at Central station was crucial.

I will ever owe him for letting us use his waterbed on that first night.

He came, he stayed, he had a brilliant time (the pantomime was right up his street) and he left the same morning that I left for a matinee, just before Christmas. His baggage was stuffed with Christmas presents for friends and family at home.

It was the 21st December.

I came home late that night, after an exhausting three shows and turned on the TV – the news was all about Lockerbie.

I turned to Krissie - “How many flights to New York are there out of Heathrow at that time?”

We simultaneously joined the fatal dots.

We rang the emergency number, later met the detectives and even later met his father for the first time when he came to visit the memorial.

We still grieve Bill's absence.

Bill was about 30 when the bomb exploded, his father when I met him was not a man consumed by anger seeking revenge.

He was not trying to understand something that is incomprehensible, probably even to those who perpetuate such acts.

He was picking up the discarded pieces of his son’s life, visiting those who had known him, who had been touched by his last few hours.

When I read today that the US Authorities are angry at the Scottish justice system I feel cynical.

I think they should grow up.

Maybe if they had had their way they would have invaded Libya and killed a few people. But would they have been certain to get the ones responsible?

Anyhow, when has vengeance ever been the same as justice?

They may well feel anger and distaste at the welcome the released man was given on arrival home - but will it ever be as justified as the anger that many still feel at the American Embassy that received, and posted, the bomb warning they had been sent, that lead to embassy staff cancelling flights and encouraged the company to offer cheap weekend flights to innocent people?

William Edward Mack r.i.p. (more on Bill here)