This Libya business gets worse.

Now the UK government is tangled up in explaining what it did or did not to to help victims of IRA terrorist bombs get compensation from Libya, source of the IRA’s Semtex explosives.

Here is a piece about the basic legal claim involved.

To my long-lost legal mind, there is an issue about ‘remoteness’ here. It is one think Libya (whatever ‘Libya’ means in this context) supplying explosives to the IRA, another to hold Libya responsible in law for any eventual harm caused by for IRA murdering.

Would victims of IRA shoot-outs be likely to get far suing Russia for making the AK47s used by IRA gangsters? Methinks not.

The fact that Libya has paid compensation to Lockerbie bomb victims’ families looks to be not relevant, in that there the direct link between Libya and the bombing/bombers was established.

Be that as it may, the litigation trundles along. So the issue arises: what if anything should HMG do to support it?

If HMG takes the view that this is something on which Libya properly might be pressed officially to respond, what way forward offers the best practical outcome?

Openly siding with the families in the case will please the families, but might make Libya dig in its heels. Quiet, nagging diplomacy and top secret lunches at the Travellers Club may be more likely to get somewhere, but the fact that such diplomacy is quiet may let the Libyans think we don’t mean it, and the families may think HMG are not really trying.

Plus any direct involvement by HMG may give the Libyans a plausible excuse to stall any legal proceedings pending official discussions, and the whole thing will drag on inconclusively for years.

A typical Art of Diplomacy conundrum.

So how best to proceed is not obvious.

But it is obvious how not to proceed: by being uncertain/evasive and not looking people in the eye.

Memo to next government: don’t be silly and try to get away with all Presentation and no Substance. But do get Presentation right, from Day One. This means being measured, firm but friendly, adult and straightforward. Easy.