Yvonne Fletcher and the Betrayal of Justice
THE TELEGRAPH: 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.

The secret report, which was conducted at the request 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.

The CPS said last night that two years on, the police had still not provided them with the final case against the men. It added that the investigation into the killing of WPc Fletcher, who was 25, was ongoing.

The fact that no further progress has been made despite the report will raise fresh questions about the nature of Britain’s vexed relationship with Libya since diplomatic relations were restored in 1999. >>> Christopher Hope, Gordon Rayner and Damien McElroy in Tripoli | Thursday, October 15, 2009

Another Shameful Surrender to Libya
THE TELEGRAPH: Telegraph View: The Government's behaviour has made Britain look craven and weak.

The cynicism and tawdriness of Britain's dealings with Libya were brought into sharp focus recently by the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi. While ostensibly returned to his homeland on compassionate grounds, the affair drew attention to the murky dealings between London and Tripoli as part of a concerted international effort to end Libya's pariah status and halt its embryonic nuclear weapons programme.

It was long suspected that the process of Libya's rehabilitation involved a tacit agreement no longer to pursue the killers of WPc Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot while on patrol outside the Libyan embassy 25 years ago.

As our report indicates today, the principal responsibility for the lamentable failure to bring WPc Fletcher's killer to book appears to lie with Tony Blair, the former prime minister. In the summer of 2007, he visited Libya for talks with Col Gaddafi as part of the rapprochement. At this point, the Crown Prosecution Service had enough evidence to charge two Libyans with conspiracy.

Yet Mr Blair, no doubt dazzled by the trade and oil exploration opportunities on offer, did not make the resolution of this episode one of the conditions for continuing the process. Nor, when the release of Megrahi by the Scottish executive was being contemplated, did the British Government apparently urge that the quid pro quo should be the handing over of those responsible. While Libya was said to be unprepared to extradite its nationals, a precedent had been set in the Megrahi case for conducting a trial in a third country. >>> Telegraph View | Friday, October 16, 2009

NUMBER 10 – ePetition: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to urgently seek the extradition to the UK of the murderer of WPC Yvonne Fletcher. >>>

Brown Betrays Stay-at-Home Mums!
This government is about as inept as any government could be! Children need mothers at home. It makes a huge difference to their development. Children do not, cannot, raise themselves! Hence, our government should enable and encourage mothers to stay at home to care for their children. Apart from children benefiting from stay-at-home mums – we can see the results of decades of the neglect of the rôle of conventional motherhood everywhere around us – the country benefits from them, too. Mothers who stay at home are far more likely to have more children. And the fact is that the United Kingdom needs children, children called Jack, Timothy, or Christian! The demographics are turning against the indigenous population. If things go on as they are, it won’t be long before an Islamic flag, depicting the ‘sword of Allah’, will be hoisted above Downing Street. What are our politicians thinking about? How idiotic it is for any government to to demean the rôle of motherhood! – ©Mark

DAILY MAIL: More than eight million women who took time out of work to care for their children have lost their chance of a full state pension after a Christmas u-turn by the Government.

Ministers have dropped plans to give women with a partial pension entitlement the chance to make up the shortfall before they retire, it emerged last night.

The decision was slipped out in the Lords as Parliament adjourned for the holiday break, to the astonishment of peers who had been promised action earlier this year.

The Government had offered to back an amendment to the Pensions Bill that would have allowed women to make up shortfalls in their state pension entitlement by paying in extra cash.

But in what the Tories claimed last night was a 'betrayal of stay at home mums', ministers said they have now decided not to back the scheme. Betrayal of stay-at-home mothers: 8m women lose state pensions after Government u-turn >>> By Benedict Brogan

Mark Alexander (Paperback)

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