"extremely offensive"

When Peter Mandelson and Jack Straw both use the word "offensive" to describe claims that they might not be telling the 100% truth then I smell a rat. These are men who I would not trust to tell me the correct time whilst standing in an horologist's showroom.

Jack Straw's remarks are reported by the BBC in relation to Michael Howard writing to Jack Straw asking if the releases of al-Megrahi and Ronnie Biggs were linked. Both having been freed on compassionate grounds last month. Jack Straw's spokesman said there was no connection and that Mr Howard's comments were "extremely offensive".

There is of course a common link in that both will live a lot longer than the British public were lead to believe would be the case at the time of their release.

Regardless of whether as Michael Howard claims the sequence of events makes it "very hard" to avoid the inference that the U-turn in the Biggs case had been influenced by Jack Straw's "knowledge of the likely decision of the Scottish government in the Megrahi case", both releases were wrong and show this Labour government and its senior ministers for what they really are.