Damning verdict on Scottish Justice under the SNP Government by top lawyer, “these are the kind of rules one expects to find in the third world."

Dear All

On occasion I do a bit of blogging on Scottish law and the lack of talent in the Scottish Parliament.

Here is a direct quote from Alistair Bonnington, a former honorary professor of law at Glasgow University:

"If you read the Scottish legislation, a lot of it looks as if it's been written by a primary school child. It really is embarrassing”.

It isn’t just the fact that it is badly written; it’s the concept behind the ideas that are disturbing, some people have no business in drafting and proposing law.

The reason is that they are out and out pricks who have no understanding of human rights, justice and so it seems law itself!

Bonnington goes on to add that Holyrood has inflicted more damage to Scots law since devolution than Westminster did in 300 years, and he is a leading lawyer.

Rather than the A Team, Holyrood has been filled up with the Z Team of politicians and they churn out shit such as the Offensive behaviour at fitba Act, done to meet a fitba season timetable, it is a piece of shit that should have been struck down by the SNP Government.

Sadly they didn’t and are probably proud of it.

Kenny MacAskill, Alex Salmond’s pal, ergo, a Cabinet filled out with his buddies, he never should have been appointed Justice Minister, but then the argument probably used by Salmond is that MacAskill is the best person for the job.

This begs the question how bad are the others?

Justice is a sham under the leadership of Kenny MacAskill, however unionists love him, he is a Stella reason for not voting for independence, he isn’t trusted, hence Scots will be voting to keep the UK Supreme Court as a backstop.

MacAskill’s judgement is warped, we saw this in Megrahi, we saw this in Cadder and we are seeing this in a whole host of other issues, including the ending of double jeopardy, a centuries-old tradition which prevented a person being tried twice for the same crime.

His attack on eroding legal aid is well known which includes effectively wanting to fine innocent people to appear at court.

You just can’t write enough about how bad justice is under his tenure.

Another sustained attack is the wanting to remove corroboration and the ban on juries being told about an accused person's previous convictions.

Effectively this means evidence is secondary to smearing and poisoning the jury, perhaps MacAskill thought because smearing works within the Scottish National Party, it is appropriate to roll it out into the legal profession.

And since the review of the law by Lord Carloway, he has been given his reward, pushed up the legal tree when he should have been persona non grata for his work.

Ironically SNP Ministers are currently consulting on how best to implement Lord Carloway's recommendations.

Bonnington added:

"Sadly it is not going too far to say that Holyrood has done more harm to Scots law than Westminster managed in more than 300 years."

And also he rightly attacked the one party state mentality of the SNP Government by saying that Scotland now had "Soviet-style laws on double jeopardy" and that the "established traditions of Scots law have been abandoned to fit in with right-wing tabloid thinking".

All of this erodes confidence in the legal system and confidence in government and gives people a reason not to vote SNP.

In looking what Holyrood has done, Bonnington said:

“these are the kind of rules one expects to find in the third world."

George Laird was right again, some people in Holyrood are really talentless and oh how it shows.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University