I would love to have been able to listen in on this phone call:

US President Barack Obama has voiced his disappointment directly to UK PM Gordon Brown over the release of the Lockerbie bomber, the White House says.

You can almost imagine the different phases Brown's personality went through during that call. He would have started off excited that Obama was calling him. Maybe he would have felt a pang of disappointment when he realised that al-Megrahi's release was going to play a part in a conversation with his special friend Obama. You can imagine him then drifting rapidly into sulking as he realises he is getting a bollocking from Obama about the release. And then you can imagine the rage after the call that he got the blame for the release, even though everyone knows that it was the Scottish government who made this choice. I'd imagine Brown was fuming. I wonder whether he took it out on another phone?

Still, this bit cracks me up:

A spokesman in London said the issue "came up" but refused to say who raised it first.

Erm, I think we can be sure, what with Brown's legendary cowardice and refusal to discuss any issue that may reflect badly on him, that Obama would have raised the issue. Otherwise, it would never have come up and Brown would have gone on happily ignoring it in the hope that it would go away. In exactly the same was as he has been behaving since al-Megrahi returned to Libya.