Tam Dalyell

Sir Thomas Dalyell Loch, 11th Baronet (born 9 August 1932), known as Tam Dalyell, is a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. He represented West Lothian from 1962 to 1983, then Linlithgow from 1983 to 2005.

On 14 November 1977, Tam Dalyell asked during a House of Commons debate over Scottish and Welsh devolution:

"For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate ... at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on English politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?"

He illustrated his point by pointing out the absurdity of an MP for West Lothian being able to vote on matters affecting the English town of Blackburn, Lancashire, but not Blackburn, West Lothian, in his own constituency. The name "West Lothian Question" was coined by the Ulster Unionist MP Enoch Powell in his response to Dalyell's speech:

"We have finally grasped what the Honourable Member for West Lothian is getting at. Let us call it the "West Lothian Question".

Early life

Born in Edinburgh, but raised in his mother Nora Dalyell's family home, The Binns, near Linlithgow, West Lothian; his father (Percy) Gordon Loch, C.I.E., was an Empire civil servant (Political Agent) and a scion of the Loch family. His father took his wife's maiden name in 1938, and through his mother he inherited the baronetcy of the Binns in 1972, although he never uses the title.

Education

Tam Dalyell was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and Eton College and did his National Service with the Royal Scots Greys from 1950 to 1952 – as an ordinary trooper, after failing his officer training. He then went to King's College, Cambridge to study History and Economics, where he was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association, and Vice-President of the Cambridge Union Society but failed to be elected to its presidency. He then trained as a teacher at Moray House College in Edinburgh and taught at Bo'ness Academy and a ship school. He joined the Labour Party in 1956 after the Suez Crisis. He has been a columnist for the New Scientist magazine since 1967. Recently he has also been a strong supporter of Classical subjects (Greek and Roman studies) in higher education.

Political career

Tam Dalyell became a Member of Parliament in June 1962, when he defeated William Wolfe of the Scottish National Party in a hard fought by-election for West Lothian. From 1983 onwards, he represented Linlithgow (when the new town of Livingston split off to form its own constituency) and easily retained his position as their representative. He became Father of the House after the 2001 General Election, when Sir Edward Heath retired. He was a Member of the European Parliament from 1975 to 1979, and a member of the Labour National Executive from 1986 to 1987 for the Campaign group.

Dalyell's independent stance in Parliament ensured his isolation from significant committees and jobs. His early career was promising and he became Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Richard Crossman. But he annoyed a number of ministers and was heavily censured by the Committee on Standards and Privileges for a leak about the biological weapons research establishment Porton Down to the newspapers (though he claimed that he thought the minutes were in the public domain). When Labour failed to hold power in 1970 his chances of senior office were effectively over. He was opposed to Scottish devolution and first posed the famous "West Lothian question", although it was given its name by Enoch Powell. He continued to argue his own causes: in 1978 to 1979 he voted against his own government over 100 times, despite a three-line whip.

Dalyell is vocal in his disapproval of imperialism. Beginning with his opposition to action in Borneo in 1965, he has contested almost every British action – arguing against action in Aden, the depopulation of Diego Garcia, the Falklands War (especially the sinking of the General Belgrano), the Gulf War, and action in Kosovo and Iraq, saying, "I will resist a war with every sinew in my body". When invited by a television journalist to rank Tony Blair among the eight prime ministers he had observed as a parliamentarian, he cited policy over Kosovo and Iraq as reasons for placing his party leader at the bottom of the list.

Lockerbie bombing

Tam Dalyell was also a strong presence in Parliament concerning Libya and led no fewer than 17 adjournment debates on the Lockerbie bombing, in which he repeatedly demanded answers by the government to the reports of Hans Köchler, United Nations observer at the Lockerbie trial.

Lester Coleman

In 1995, Tam Dalyell asked the Lord Advocate, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, to grant diplomatic immunity to Lester Coleman, a co-author of "Trail of the Octopus", so that he could give evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial in Scotland; the Federal Government of the United States had indictments against Coleman, accusing him of passport fraud and perjury. Allan Stewart, a former Scotland Office minister and Conservative Party MP for Eastwood, also said that Coleman should be granted immunity so he could testify in Scotland. The Lord Advocate rejected Dalyell's plea, saying that the Home Office and the English courts have the jurisdiction over the US government's extradition demand regarding Coleman, and that the Crown Office and the Scottish Office had no authority over the case. Dalyell later said "I had contact with Les Coleman 10 years ago. In my opinion, though he has a chequered history, I take him seriously."

The Megrahi I know

On 31 October 2008, the website of The Times carried an opinion piece by Tam Dalyell headed "A civilised, caring man - not a mass murderer" and subtitled "The Megrahi I know":

"My deep conviction, as a 'Professor of Lockerbie studies' over a 20-year period is that neither al-Megrahi nor Libya had any role in the destruction of Pan Am 103.

"I believe they were made a scapegoat in 1990-91 by an American government that had decided to go to war with Iraq and did not want complications with Syria and Iran, which had harboured the real perpetrators of the terrible deed. Libya and its 'operatives', Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah (al-Megrahi's co-accused) and al-Megrahi, only came into the frame at a very late date. In my informed opinion, al-Megrahi has been the victim of one of the most spectacular (and expensive) miscarriages of justice in history. (...)

"Visiting him in prison, I was struck by his self-possession - a self-possession that had struck many people at his trial, possibly because it never occurred to him that he would be found guilty. It explains my passionate involvement over 20 years, as well as that of Robert Black, Professor Emeritus of Scots law at the University of Edinburgh. It was on our say-so that Libya ever surrendered its citizens to Scottish justice. Whatever happens to al-Megrahi, faced with advanced terminal cancer, the case will continue because on trial is the international reputation of Scottish justice and particularly of the Crown Office...

"Almost the last thing that al-Megrahi said to me was: 'Yes, of course I want to go back to Tripoli. I have my wife and my five children are growing up, but I want to go back an innocent man.'

"Some of us are determined to find the truth and justice that we believe will find him innocent."

On 6 November 2008, The Times printed the following "clarification":

In Tam Dalyell's article in last Saturday's Times "A civilised, caring man - not a mass murderer", Mr Dalyell claimed that the prosecution in the Lockerbie case had lied to Lord Coulsfield, the High Court judge, when it told the trial court at Camp Zeist that it had full confidence in the evidence of the Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci. Mr Dalyell's claim was based on reported comments made by a previous Lord Advocate, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, that Mr Gauci was an unreliable witness who was "not the full shilling". The present Lord Advocate has asked us to point out that Lord Fraser made it clear in 2005 that he did not have any reservations about any aspect of the prosecution, and had no aspersions to cast on Tony Gauci's evidence and, therefore, that there is no substance to the serious allegation in the article that the Crown had lied to the court about its confidence in the evidence of Tony Gauci.

(Robert Black added: "It should be noted that there is, and could be, no denial that Lord Fraser of Carmyllie used the words attributed to him by Tam Dalyell.")

Megrahi obituary

The day after Abdelbaset al-Megrahi died on 20 May 2012, The Independent published this obituary by Tam Dalyell:

Acres of newsprint have appeared in recent years, covering various rather separate theories about the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber. If I thought for one moment that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was guilty as charged in the mass murder of 270 innocent people in the crash of the Pan Am airliner "Maid of the Seas" at Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, I would not have agreed to pen an obituary – let alone an affectionate one.

My settled conviction, as a "Professor of Lockerbie Studies" over a 22-year period, is that neither Megrahi nor Libya had any role in the destruction of Pan Am 103. The Libyans were cynically scapegoated in 1990, two years after the crash, by a US government which had decided to go to war with Iraq and did not want complications with Syria and Iran, which had harboured the real perpetrators of the terrible deed.

Libya and its "operatives", Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, only came into the frame at a very late date. In my informed opinion, Megrahi has been the victim of one of the most spectacular (and expensive) miscarriages of justice in history. The assertion of innocence is confirmed in the 497 pages of John Ashton's scholarly and remarkable book, "Megrahi: You Are My Jury – The Lockerbie Evidence", published by Birlinn.

This is an opinion shared by the senior and experienced solicitor Eddie McKechnie, who successfully represented Fhimah at Zeist in Holland, where a Scottish court was assembled to try the two accused under rules conducted by the jurisdiction of the laws of Scotland, and who took on Megrahi's case following his conviction; by Tony Kelly, the immensely thorough solicitor who has represented him for the past six years; by the bereaved relatives Dr Jim Swire and the Reverend John Mosey, who lost daughters and attended the entire Zeist trial; by Professor Robert Black, Emeritus Professor of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh, and Lockerbie-born; and by many others in legal Edinburgh.

Furthermore, the Scottish Criminal Review Commission, in the course of its 800-page report, says (paragraph 24, page 708): "The Crown deprived the defence of the opportunity to take such steps as it might have deemed necessary – so the defence's case was damaged." It concluded: "The commission's view is that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred."

Megrahi was not in Malta on the date the clothing, so crucial in the whole Lockerbie saga, was bought from the shopkeeper Tony Gauci. The proprietor of Mary's House identified a number of different people, including Abu Talb, who appeared at the trial to deny his part in the bombing. Talb was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command and is now serving a life sentence in Sweden for the 1985 bombings in Copenhagen and Amsterdam. These discrepancies were part of the reason why the Scottish criminal review commission concluded that there could have been a miscarriage of justice; another was the unexplained payment of $10m from Iranian sources into the coffers of the Popular Front.

The testimony of Lesley Atkinson, who knew Megrahi well in Tripoli, is interesting. She is the wife of Neville Atkinson, who, in 1972, left a career as a night-fighter pilot in the Royal Navy to take up a position as personal pilot to the president of Libya, Colonel Gaddafi, until 1982. "Megrahi was polite and friendly and worked for Libyan Arab Airlines," Mrs Atkinson told me. "Of course, lots of people who worked for LAA were connected to the security services and I do not doubt that he was one of them. We knew him both at work and at the Beach Club – he was a normal, nice guy. I cannot imagine that he would ever have dreamt of planting a bomb on an airliner. He just would not have done that to passengers."

Eddie McKechnie described Megrahi as a cultured man doing a job for his country, and certainly not a mass-murderer. Had he not been given extremely bad advice not to appear in the witness box Megrahi would have revealed the truth – that he was a sanctions-buster, travelling the world to find spare parts for the Libyan oil industry and Libyan Arab Airlines. This role was confirmed to me by Colonel Gaddafi, when, as leader of the Inter-Parliamentary Union delegation to Libya in March 2001, I saw him in his tent outside Sirte. Gaddafi's own knowledge or involvement in Lockerbie is a different matter.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was born in 1952 and educated in Tripoli and in the Engineering Faculty of Benghazi University. He became involved in the Ministry of Trade, and like many other officials, certainly did so in the intelligence services. He served as the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines and as director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli. A genuine believer in what the young Gaddafi was trying to achieve, and in the Great Jamariyah, Megrahi was happy to put his talents at the service of the state. Where else in Africa is there no hint of personal corruption among the leadership, he asked me! He had good relations with engineers at Brown and Root, I was told by their chairman and managing director, Sir Richard Morris (1980-90). Brown and Root was the contractor for the huge irrigation projects in Cyreneica, south of Benghazi, the man-made river bringing water to desert areas that had been fertile in Roman times.

He was understandably proud of the traditional skills associated with his people. On one occasion, when I visited him in Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow and told him that I had been to Leptis Magna, he responded: "You know that my Tripolitanian ancestors were the artists in stone, responsible for work throughout the Empire, not least in Rome itself!" Had the judges had the opportunity to get to know Megrahi, as I knew him, they could never have arrived at the verdict of "guilty" – at most, the good Scots legal term "not proven".

After Zeist, Fhimah, represented by the aggressively formidable barrister Richard Keen QC, was cleared and returned to a hero's welcome in Tripoli. Fhimah talked with knowledge and pride, as did Megrahi, about the wonderful sight of Sabbratah and the glories of the Greek colonial city at Cyrene.

Meanwhile, Megrahi was incarcerated in Barlinnie Prison. I was not his only visitor there and in Greenock who came away with a favourable opinion. Dr Swire, who lost his daughter Flora, a medical student at the University of Nottingham, told me:

"On meeting Abdelbaset in Greenock prison, I found him charming, rational, not given to anger or bluster. He made it obvious that his first priority was to clear his name before returning to his much-loved family in Tripoli. I saw him for the last time just before Christmas 2008, when, he, a devout Muslim, gave me a Christmas card in which he asked me and my family to pray for him and his family. That card is one of my most precious possessions. This meeting was before he could have known just how closely death loomed. I cannot criticise his apparently voluntary decision to spend his last months on earth with his family, above the priority of clearing his name."

I know that in some uninformed quarters, Dr Swire's views are regarded as eccentric. But it is the other British relatives who have studied the position in depth, such as Martin Cadman, who lost his son Bill; Pamela Dix, who lost her brother; and the Reverend John Mosey, who lost a daughter, have arrived at precisely the same conclusions about Megrahi's innocence. Unlike some American relatives, they have bothered to make exhaustive studies of the detail.

In my opinion, whatever Gordon Brown, Kenny MacAskill, Alex Salmond and Jack Straw – all fundamentally decent human beings – may feel they have to say in public due to pressure, and wickedness in Washington and in the Crown Office in Edinburgh, which, above all, did not want their misdeeds exposed by the truth, they all knew that they were acquiescing in the release of an innocent man. I am not quite so sure that Fhimah did not have an inkling about potentially explosive material on its way to the Bekaa valley.

Even in his final hours, controversy never deserted Megrahi. The Libyan authorities were absolutely justified in declining to extradite him, both for reasons of international law and more importantly, that he was not guilty as charged of the Lockerbie crime – also the considered opinion of Dr Hans Köchler, who attended Megrahi's trial as an official UN observer and has examined his appeal process in Scotland.

As James Cusick, who has followed the twists and turns of the Lockerbie saga for many years as a highly informed journalist, wrote in The Independent on Tuesday 30 August, "The truth behind the Lockerbie bombing remains enmeshed in diplomatic gains." My last sight of Abdelbaset was on TV on 3 October, attended by Mrs Megrahi, with tubes galore, thanking Dr Swire in gentle tones for trying to furnish necessary drugs and hissing out that there were many liars at Zeist. So there were.

Criticism of Tony Blair

Following his outspoken opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and criticism of the government, Downing Street suggested that he might face withdrawal of the Labour whip. Dalyell stated in an interview with the American magazine Vanity Fair that Prime Minister Tony Blair was unduly influenced by a "cabal of Jewish advisers." He specifically named Lord Levy who was Blair's official representative in the Middle East and Labour politicians Peter Mandelson (whose father was Jewish) and Jack Straw (whose great-grandfather was Jewish). Mandelson said that "apart from the fact that I am not actually Jewish, I wear my father's parentage with pride." Dalyell denied accusations that the remarks were anti-Semitic. In March 2003, regarding the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Tam Dalyell accused the then Prime Minister Tony Blair of being a war criminal, stating: "Since Mr Blair is going ahead with his support for a US attack without unambiguous UN authorisation, he should be branded as a war criminal and sent to The Hague."

Post retirement

On 7 March 2003, Dalyell was elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh by the staff and students. He was succeeded in 2006 by Mark Ballard. It was announced on 13 January 2004 that he would stand down at the next election, and he left the House of Commons in April 2005 after 43 years as a member of the Commons. He had been Scotland's longest-serving MP since the resignation of Bruce Millan in 1988. He was succeeded as Father of the House by Alan Williams. On 16 May 2009, the Daily Telegraph reported that Dalyell had claimed £18,000 for three bookcases just months before his retirement from the House of Commons. Dalyell, however, claimed that this was a legitimate expense to which he was entitled; the House of Commons' Fees Office finally released £7,800.

Family

Tam Dalyell married Kathleen Wheatley, a teacher, on 26 December 1963. They have one son, Gordon Wheatley Dalyell, and one daughter, both of whom are lawyers. He is a 6th cousin of Harry S. Truman through the daughter of the 1st Baronet Dalyell of the Binns. In his retirement, and for some years previously, he has contributed obituaries to The Independent. In 2011 he published his autobiography, The Importance of Being Awkward. The dedication is "To the men and women of West Lothian – Labour, SNP, Conservative, Liberal, Communist – who, whatever their political opinions, were kind to me in all sorts of ways over 43 years as their representative in the House of Commons."

Bibliography

• The Case of Ship-Schools, 1960
• Ship-School Dunera, 1963
• Devolution: The End of Britain?, 1977
• One Man's Falklands, 1982
• A Science Policy for Britain, 1983
• Thatcher's Torpedo, 1983
• Misrule, 1987
• Dick Crossman: A Portrait, 1989
• The Importance of Being Awkward: The Autobiography of Tam Dalyell, 2011

See also

• The Maltese Double Cross - Lockerbie

External links

• Tam Dalyell to step down at 2005 election
• BBC NEWS | Politics | Tam Dalyell
• Tam Dalyell – the longest serving MP
• Tam Dalyell, former MP Linlithgow
• Westminster Diary: Tam Dalyell Column from New Scientist magazine
• Blair the war criminal by Tam Dalyell article about Tony Blair in The Guardian newspaper 27 March 2003
• Tam Dalyell Profile – 'Heckling for Britain' – from The Guardian newspaper 13 April 2002

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