Well to remember- Play hard and well in international relations as coming bottom of the league isn’t a sporting option in the real world. A thought from a few years back-
The former US Un Ambassador John Bolton on BBC’s Newsnight said that Scotland was steered in to releasing Lockerbie bomber Al-Megrahi with Kenny MacAskill MSP, Scottish Justice Minister at the time who claimed, rightly so, that realising him on compassionate grounds was a justifiable legal action. The grizzled former ambassador’s wider point was whether it’s good judicial practise or not there was wider and bigger international implications and positions in play. He viewed the Scottish Government had made the wrong decision geo-politically certainly from a US point of view. Al-Megrahi lived for a further 3 years before he died in Libya and his release was a last hurrah for the Gaddifi regime toppled in 2011.
The point was a hard one you can’t be too sentimental and broader interests need to be finely considered before enacting moral standpoints in individual cases. Scot’s ministers will have to play hard in any negotiations in an independent Scotland right from the start, although upholding humanitarian positions would mark them out well too.
LDC