Is there anything about the UK's willingness to give anyone benefits that will ever surprise me?

From The Telegraph:

'The key suspect in the murder of WPc Yvonne Fletcher was claiming taxpayer-funded benefits at the time the policewoman was shot dead, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Matouk Mohammed Matouk, who is at the centre of an extradition row between Britain and Libya, took advantage of this country’s generous social security rules during two years as a student here.

The payments are disclosed in a cache of documents found by this newspaper in the wreckage of Mr Matouk’s home outside Tripoli.

The papers show that he applied for child benefit for his two daughters, Buthina and Bushra, after enrolling in an architecture course at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University in 1982.

A letter from the then Department of Health and Social Security, written in June 1983, confirmed that Mr Matouk and his wife, Salma Salem, qualified for child benefit.

The couple were entitled to keep claiming the payments, which were backdated seven months from the date of the letter, until Mr Matouk was deported following WPc Fletcher’s murder in April 1984.

In total, the couple were entitled to more than £800 of child benefit — the equivalent of £2,000 today. The letter states that “child benefit is payable for Buthina and Bushra at the weekly rate of £5.85 each from and including 6/12/82”.

It has also emerged that Mr Matouk was allowed to graduate in absentia from Heriot-Watt in July 1986, more than two years after he had been thrown out of the country over his suspected involvement in WPc Fletcher’s death. '

So a foreign student comes to the UK from Libya, claims benefits for his children, works in the Libyan embassy, is accused of murdering a British Policewoman, leaves the UK using diplomatic immunity to avoid arrest and gets a degree in-absentia.

I asked, 'Is there anything about the UK's willingness to give anyone benefits that will ever surprise me?' The answer is probably not.

Interesting breaking news re the killer of WPC Yvonne Fletcher

I hear rumours that the Libyan rebel 'governmnet' has confirmed that they know the whereabouts of Matouk Mohammed Matouk, the man suspected of shooting WPC Yvonne Fletcher dead outside the Libyan Embassy in 1984. Will they extradite him back to the UK to finally face trial, or will they prove as obstructive, on this matter, as was Colonel Gadaffi's regime? If the latter then this should be unacceptable to UK government bearing in mind how much money UK have helping Libyan rebels defeat Gadaffi. However don't expect strong words, let alone deeds from William Hague.

Justice at last for WPC Yvonne Fletcher?

Could WPC Yvonne Fletcher's killer finally be about to be brought to justice. For all the shmoozing of Colonel Gaddafi and others in the Libyan regime by Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and others, the person or persons who shot WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London on 17 April 1984  was never extradited back to London to face justice. So it was with some surprise that I read in The Guardian that:

'The man suspected of murdering PC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984 has been arrested by rebel forces in the country and is in custody in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Campaigners welcomed the arrest and expressed the hope that Omar Ahmed Sodani would face trial in Britain.'

About bloody time too, almost 27 years after the shooting. I hope that Tony Blair & Peter Mandelson feel suitably ashamed that they did next to nothing to help the Fletcher family in this matter, preferring to bring Gaddafi's Libya in from the cold and enable deals to be done.

I hope that when Tripoli finally falls,  the records of deals done by the Gaddafi regime with British politicians, and others, are made public. I suspect that there may well be some very interesting information in those files, maybe enough for prosecutions of certain people formerly in high positions in the UK and EU governments but certainly enough to have them shown for what they really are.

An odd expression or two

The Telegraph reported yesterday that the British police were 'close to bringing Fletcher murderer to justice'. The paper names two Libyan men who the police think they have enough evidence to bring charges of 'conspiracy to cause death' against.

Two expressions in the article caught my eye. The first was about the two men and ran

'They have remnainded close to Colonel Gadaffi... unlikely Libya will allow them to stand trial'

So much for Libya re-joining the family of nations. Libya was a terrorist state and, oil or no oil, until they allow the perpetrators of the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher to stand trial in London then they will remain a terrorist state in my eyes.

The second part that caught my eye was this:

'ask the Government to renegotiate a deal agreed by Labour which specified that any future trial would be held in Libya. "You can't get British justice in a Libyan court", said Mr Kawczynski.'

How cowardly and grasping were the last Labour government? Were they really so concerned with securing oil contracts for British companies and ensuring the future wealth of some of their senior members that they were willing to sell out the family of WPC Fletcher over and over again?

I am so shocked, no really, I am shocked

The Telegraph reports the simply shocking news that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi who was released on compassionate grounds on 30 July as he had three months to live, is not only still alive but three months on from Prof Sikora's diagnosis,

"Megrahi is well enough to "walk and talk" and shows no sign of deterioration, according to a senior source involved in his release.

The source told The Sunday Telegraph: "His condition has not deteriorated in three months. He is pretty much in the same way as he was when this all started. He is just as he was. There is nothing that leads anyone to believe he is in any different condition to when he left Scotland.""

Don't forget that

"Megrahi, who is suffering terminal prostate cancer, was sent home to Libya to die after medical experts concluded in a report on July 30 he had just three months left to live. The time span was crucial because only prisoners with three months or less to survive are eligible for release on compassionate grounds. "

Do you mean that there is a possibility that al-Megrahi might live more than three months and that his compassionate release was unnecessary? I am so shocked... Yes I know al-Megrahi almost certainly was not responsible for the Lockerbie bombing and that the true culprits would be found nearer Syria than Libya. However al-Megrahi could and indeed should have been used as a bargaining counter to get WPC Yvonne Fletcher's killers extradited to the UK. Anyone would think that there were business deals involved in the release decision...

"Gaddafi apologises for the shooting of Wpc Yvonne Fletcher"

Well sort of... The Telegraph reports that:

"Col Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has apologised for the first time for the shooting of Wpc Yvonne Fletcher. "

But has he really> Well no, as the article goes on to explain:

"He said she was not an enemy of Libya and was protecting the Libyan Embassy in London when she died, but also insisted that the gunman remained unknown.

In a wide-ranging television interview, speaking in faltering English, he said: "You see, I know that such a thing happened. I know a policewoman was shot and killed when she was doing her duty.

"She is not an enemy to us, and we are sorry all the time and our sympathy, because she was on duty, she was there to protect the Libyan Embassy, but this is the problem that should be solved, but who did it? That is the question." "

As Colonel Gaddafi is still not allowing UK police to investigate who shot WPC Fletcher, I think the apology isn't worth the breath it used up.

Friday morning catchup

So much news, so little time:

1. The Telegraph report that:

"British prosecutors were told more than two years ago that they had sufficient evidence to charge two Libyans over the killing of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, according to a leaked report.

A senior lawyer carried out an independent review of the case on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), in which he said Matouk Mohammed Matouk and Abdulgader Mohammed Baghdadi could be charged with conspiracy to cause death.

Both men played instrumental roles in organising the shooting at the Libyan embassy in St James’s Square, central London, in 1984, the report said. "

So why was there no attempt to prosecute? What possible reason could there be? You guessed it:

"The secret report, which was commissioned by the CPS on behalf of the Metropolitan Police, was completed in April 2007, just six weeks before Tony Blair, the prime minister at the time, held a controversial meeting with Colonel Gaddafi in Libya. The meeting formally opened trade links between Britain and the north African country. "

2. The Telegrpah report on the truth behind Barack Obama's alleged modesty over his Nobel Peace Prize. No surprises there...


3. The Times report that:

"Almost half of hospitals fail to meet fully the core standards of care despite a decade of Government investment in the NHS, according to the health regulator’s annual report.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) warns today that more than 40 health trusts are at risk of being refused new licences to operate, which will be issued next April. "

"Envy of the World"?


4. The Telegraph reports that the Zimbabwe power-sharing agreement is not going well...


5. The Guardian has found an excuse to swear as much as possible online; possibly the most f-words and c-words I have seen in an online article, makes Devils Kitchen seem like a novice at swearing.