Bill Wilson MSP

Dr Bill Wilson MSP has backed fellow SNP MSP Christine Grahame’s call for US senators to investigate their dealings with Libya before pointing fingers at Scotland.

Dr Wilson said, “The US Senate is currently investigating Scotland’s release of Al-Megrahi to see if this was influenced by business dealings with Libya. While the Scottish Government has said from the time of the release that the decision was made exclusively on compassionate grounds, due to the man’s fatal health condition and in accordance with Scot’s Law, the US has continued to query this.

“The hypocrisy of the US senators impugning Scotland is breathtaking.  Senator Frank Lautenberg has supposedly been a staunch advocate for victims of the Lockerbie bombing.  Why, then, did he co-sponsor legislation to make Libya, and US companies working in it, exempt from having to pay compensation to victims of terror?  US senators, who unanimously approved the exemption of Libya from a Bill on the compensation of the victims of state-sponsored terrorism, seem to have bowed to pressure from Libyan and oil-company lobbyists who put profits before justice.”

Dr Bill Wilson MSP (SNP) has lodged a parliamentary motion paying tribute to the life and works of Scotland’s National Poet, Edwin Morgan, and he called on MSPs to remember the words of his poem written for the opening of the Scottish Parliament building.

After lodging his motion, Dr Wilson said, “Edwin became the first ‘Scot Makar’ in 2004, essentially Scotland’s National Poet, having been already made Glasgow’s first poet laureate in 1999. Not just a poet, Edwin was a teacher and playwright while being an award winning translator of poems. In later life, he was diagnosed with cancer and lived out his days at a nursing home in Glasgow where he continued to write.

“At the opening of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004, a poem which Edwin had written for the occasion was read out. ‘We give you our consent to govern, don’t pocket it and ride away’ is just one memorable line from it, a poem which MSPs – my colleagues and I – would do well to read often to remind ourselves of why we are here and how we should conduct ourselves.

“Edwin Morgan was a man who used his experiences of Scotland to produce great works and inspire people the world over. A talent like this only comes along once in a generation. While it is a time of great sadness when we lose such a man, we can rejoice in the fact that he has left us the timeless gift in his poetry.”