Gordon Brown’s U-turn on Libya comes too late

So, Gordon Brown has performed not just a U-turn but a full-on screeching handbrake turn over the issue of whether the families of IRA bombing victims should pursue Libya for compensation on the grounds that it was Libyan-made Semtex that was used to blow up their loved ones.

After the Sunday Times revealed that the PM had personally vetoed an attempt by the families to push for compensation - because it might jeopardise oil and trade deals with Libya - Downing Street announced on Sunday afternoon that Britain will now support compensation claims being made by IRA victims' families.

Speaking in Berlin, where he was meeting Angela Merkel, Brown said a "dedicated" team of officials would now help seek compensation for the families.

The Libyans' response came from the leader's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who said they would resist the families' demands. However, Gaddafi Jnr did say it would be a matter for the courts - which cheered the families involved because at least it showed the Libyans were "engaging" with them over the issue.

Whether the PM's change of heart on this issue will do him any good as the Lockerbie-Libya affair rumbles on is very unlikely. The Tories are now demanding an inquiry into the release from jail of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. They are unlikely to get such an inquiry - the Government will simply ignore the request - even though an exclusive about Megrahi's health in the Sunday Telegraph has piled on the pressure.

The report showed that the doctors who advised the Scottish government that Megrahi had only three months to live - a condition of his release on compassionate grounds - were paid their fees by the Libyans, not the Scots, and were "encouraged" to give the convicted bomber a pessimistic diagnosis.

Professor Karol Sikora, a London cancer specialist who was one of the three doctors called in to visit Megrahi at Greenock Prison at the end of July, told the Telegraph: "The figure of three months was suggested as being helpful. To start with I said it was impossible to do that but, when I looked at it, it looked as though it could be done - you could actually say that."

With all due respect to Megrahi's loved ones, the best thing that can happen now for Gordon Brown and his fellow Scots at Holyrood is that Megrahi does indeed succumb to his prostate cancer and moves reasonably swiftly to the door marked Paradise. However, the latest report from the Tripoli Medical Center is that Megrahi - with five weeks of that three-month deadline already expired - has just been moved out of intensive care.