§ 14. Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make an assessment of a film, a copy of which has been sent to him.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggDecisions about whether to prosecute are matters for the police and the prosecution authorities. They are indeed considering the film to which the hon. Gentleman has referred.
§ Mr. DalyellMay I, first, thank the Foreign Secretary for seeing me in his room on Monday night about Allan Francovich's film entitled "The Maltese Double Cross". Could the Crown Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office—the lead Departments—be persuaded to question the right hon. Member for Southend, West (Mr. Channon), who was Secretary of State for Transport in March 1989, and who, I believe, said in good faith to reputable members of the Lobby, that the bombers were about to be identified? Should not the investigation ask him what prompted him to say that, and why he was subsequently removed by Mrs. Thatcher from her Cabinet? Could not it also be asked whether any serious investigation into the truth of Lockerbie can take place without asking Mrs. Thatcher how, in 800 self-serving pages, she did not mention Lockerbie once, but she did say, in justifying the 1986 raid, that never again, after the raid on the working-class tenements of Benghazi and Tripoli, would there be any kind of Libyan terrorism. If, with her access to intelligence, she believed that, how could she possibly think that the Libyan state was responsible for Lockerbie?
§ Mr. HoggTruth to tell, I am awfully fond of the hon. Gentleman, but he sometimes behaves in a rather dotty manner.
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. Has the Minister responded to the question?
§ Mr. HoggI have indeed responded to the question from the hon. Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell).