While things look bad for the Government(s), if the Scottish authorities did cherry-pick, and it is by no means certain that they did, the presumption must be in their favour until proved otherwise. Why would Scotland want to appease Gadaffi; it has no foreign policy? Brown must have had Salmond's arm up behind his back while he did so.

Megrahi was released because he was going to die of prostate cancer. That was the reason he was let go, and it was a valid one. No amount of griping will alter that. Maybe he wouldn't have been so lucky without a handy arab state pleading his cause, but the reason for release, if convenient, was real. It must be borne in mind that there is a significant body of opinion the either Megrahi is entirely innocent, and that his conviction resulted from the worst miscarriage of justice in Scotland for a century. I, for one, would be unhappy to hang a man where there were such significant doubts about his guilt.

"Strong" politicians, no doubt, would hang everyone in sight until they found the right one?

As for the breach of the conditions of his release, I think Ian2411 has dealt with that.