Whitehall Cracks, and up came a bubblin' crude—Black gold, Lybian tea

Just in from the Telegraph, Justice Secretary Jack Straw admits that recent contracts between the oil giant BP and Libya played a role in facilitating the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. This "unapologetic" revelation comes (conveniently) on the first Friday back from summer holiday and days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown emphatically denied a link between deals for oil from Libya and the release or transfer of the only man convicted of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103. In the interview with the Telegraph, Straw admitted that he backed down from his request that al-Megrahi would be excluded from a possible prisoner transfer in a deal between the UK and Libya, after BP warned that maintaining that exclusion would cost the company a half-billion pound contract.

Straw's revelation, however, pertained to an agreement that was not invoked when Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill released al-Megrahi from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds. MacAskill's decision was roundly condemned Monday by the opposition parties in Scotland's parliament, but the motion stopped short of including a non-confidence clause that would have toppled the minority Scottish National Party government and forced an election. However, it is another bone thrown in the already heaping pile of distrust the average British voter has in Westminster.

Should this revelation convince enough backbenchers to force an election before year's end, the Commons Speaker will have less time to prepare for his new opponent in his Buckingham constituency: the outgoing leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage. Farage, who also led UKIP's delegation in the European Parliament, will defy the tradition of established parties not submitting candidates to challenge the Speaker, who must step aside from his/her party when assuming the role. Bercow, formerly a Tory who many in his party believe should really be a Labour MP, will be painted by Farage as the head of a broken, dysfunctional, self-serving and pass-the-quid Commons. Slight concern for the Kent native Farage is that although Bercow started leaning into Tony Blair's Third Way camp prior to his elevation to Speaker, Buckingham is one of the most reliably Conservative constituencies in the UK. Should Farage's campaign, which will also bring up the banning of incandescent light bulbs, convince enough Tories to dump Bercow or simply stay home from the polls, the subsequent ripples coinciding with the imminent fall of the Labour government (or a Deweyesque collapse that keeps Brown around) will bring about renewed debate about the UK's role in Europe.

Provided Scotland want to stick around for it.