UK shooting party: Lord Mandelson, Cherie Blair and... Gaddafi's son?

I know this sounds like the start of a bad joke, "The deputy prime minister, the ex Prime Minister's wife and a terrorist scumbag walk into a bar..." But how would YOU feel if you were a family member of one of the Lockerbie bombing victims, right about now?

<--- Lord Mandelson.

From the Daily Mail:

Lord Mandelson has infuriated families of the Lockerbie bombing victims by attending a shooting party with Colonel Gaddafi's son. The Business Secretary and Saif Gaddafi were guests of billionaire financier Lord Rothschild and his son Nat at the family mansion in Buckinghamshire.

In a bizarre confirmation of Labour's close links to the Libyan regime, Cherie Blair was also present.

Cherie Blair --->

The gathering came after the controversial release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al Megrahi, who was flown home by Saif Gaddafi to a hero's welcome in August. Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, was released from a Scottish jail after being given just three months (Ed. note: three WEEKS not months) to live.

His continued survival, however, more than three months later has renewed claims that his release was cynically engineered to placate the Gaddafi regime and protect lucrative oil contracts with Tripoli.

<--- Keen shot Gaddafi

Details of the shooting party at Lord Rothschild's French chateau-style Waddesdon Manor estate, near Aylesbury, are revealed today by Spectator magazine columnist Charles Moore.

He writes: 'A shoot was taking place, though not all the party were shooting. As well as Lord Rothschild and his son Nat, the unofficial deputy prime minister, Lord Mandelson, was there, and also Lord Rothschild's country neighbour, Cherie Blair.

'Neither of them picked up a gun.

Read the original Spectator article in its entirety here. I will leave you with this thought from Charles Moore courtesy of Fraser Nelson...

'What are we to make of all this? It could be argued that the Gaddafis are better occupied shooting pheasants than blowing up airliners. It could also be argued that it is unusual for our deputy prime minister to be rubbing shoulders with a member of the family responsible for the biggest terrorist atrocity ever committed against British citizens.'