Dear All
The Peter Cadder Case is one of the most significant cases in recent Scottish Legal History.
Why?
Because it centres on human rights or the lack of them!
Who denied the people their human rights?
The Westminster pre 1999 and all Scottish Executives post 1999.
Since 1984, suspects in England have had the right to have access to a lawyer when detained, Scots did not.
The merits of the Cadder Case are important to Cadder but the denial of due process is of importance and concern to us all.
Now, the Scottish Government Ministers will push through emergency legislation regarded as the biggest changes in the Scottish criminal justice system for 30 years.
And they will do so in a few hours.
The Scottish Government has drawn up plans to give all suspects held by police the right to consult a lawyer; actually they aren’t giving them the right, because they already had it.
The emergency legislation is to extend the time Police can be detained without charge from six hours to a maximum of 24.
So, we have the spectacle of Holyrood officials trying to clear the parliamentary diary for tomorrow afternoon to get the new rules on to the statute books.
Not in the interests of human rights but in the interests of extending due process.
To recap, a test case was brought by lawyers for 20-year-old Peter Cadder that his human rights were infringed when he was denied access to a lawyer.
They were.
But having your human rights denied wasn’t a high priority for Holyrood’s 129 MSPs, for the last 11 years they were content to sit there, take the £55k a year plus expenses and keep their mouths firmly shut.
This lead to Cadder and his case coming before the UK Supreme Court which some Scottish politicians have actively criticised.
If it wasn’t for the UK Supreme Court, Scots would still be denied their human rights.
The European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into Scots law at devolution so there is no excuse, none at all.
John McGovern, president of the Glasgow Bar Association is calling the Government move:
“the biggest piece of panic legislation of recent times”.
Lord Advocate Elish ‘Labour’ Angiolini stated that effectively giving people their rights would have the potential to cause enormous disruption to the Scottish legal system.
‘Labour’ Angiolini isn’t known for having a strong justice stance.
John Scott, a solicitor advocate who sounded the warning bell that there were human rights problems with the Scottish practice of denying lawyers to suspects, said:
“There is an old saying: ‘Legislate in haste and repent at leisure’. We have seen in the past that things such as anti-terrorism legislation have been used to deliver a wish list for the police. We need to take time to reflect on whether we really need to make such changes.”
A Scottish Government spokesman last night said:
“Seven judges, sitting in the highest criminal court in Scotland, have already ruled unanimously that Scots law is ECHR-compliant in this respect”.
They were completely wrong, human rights apply all the time not when it suits the establishment to give them to the individual.
The spokesman added:
“However, the Scottish Government is fully aware of the impending ruling in the UK Supreme Court in the matter of Cadder v Her Majesty’s Advocate and is planning for any impact it may have. Until a decision is made we cannot comment on the details of the case.”
In other words rather than being proactive on what is a justice issue, they are hedging their bets.
If the Cadder Case fails then they are quite happy to go back to denying people detained in custody their human rights.
What a brave new Scotland we are heading towards, doesn’t it look eerily similar the corrupt Scotland that has gone before?
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
The Peter Cadder Case is one of the most significant cases in recent Scottish Legal History.
Why?
Because it centres on human rights or the lack of them!
Who denied the people their human rights?
The Westminster pre 1999 and all Scottish Executives post 1999.
Since 1984, suspects in England have had the right to have access to a lawyer when detained, Scots did not.
The merits of the Cadder Case are important to Cadder but the denial of due process is of importance and concern to us all.
Now, the Scottish Government Ministers will push through emergency legislation regarded as the biggest changes in the Scottish criminal justice system for 30 years.
And they will do so in a few hours.
The Scottish Government has drawn up plans to give all suspects held by police the right to consult a lawyer; actually they aren’t giving them the right, because they already had it.
The emergency legislation is to extend the time Police can be detained without charge from six hours to a maximum of 24.
So, we have the spectacle of Holyrood officials trying to clear the parliamentary diary for tomorrow afternoon to get the new rules on to the statute books.
Not in the interests of human rights but in the interests of extending due process.
To recap, a test case was brought by lawyers for 20-year-old Peter Cadder that his human rights were infringed when he was denied access to a lawyer.
They were.
But having your human rights denied wasn’t a high priority for Holyrood’s 129 MSPs, for the last 11 years they were content to sit there, take the £55k a year plus expenses and keep their mouths firmly shut.
This lead to Cadder and his case coming before the UK Supreme Court which some Scottish politicians have actively criticised.
If it wasn’t for the UK Supreme Court, Scots would still be denied their human rights.
The European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into Scots law at devolution so there is no excuse, none at all.
John McGovern, president of the Glasgow Bar Association is calling the Government move:
“the biggest piece of panic legislation of recent times”.
Lord Advocate Elish ‘Labour’ Angiolini stated that effectively giving people their rights would have the potential to cause enormous disruption to the Scottish legal system.
‘Labour’ Angiolini isn’t known for having a strong justice stance.
John Scott, a solicitor advocate who sounded the warning bell that there were human rights problems with the Scottish practice of denying lawyers to suspects, said:
“There is an old saying: ‘Legislate in haste and repent at leisure’. We have seen in the past that things such as anti-terrorism legislation have been used to deliver a wish list for the police. We need to take time to reflect on whether we really need to make such changes.”
A Scottish Government spokesman last night said:
“Seven judges, sitting in the highest criminal court in Scotland, have already ruled unanimously that Scots law is ECHR-compliant in this respect”.
They were completely wrong, human rights apply all the time not when it suits the establishment to give them to the individual.
The spokesman added:
“However, the Scottish Government is fully aware of the impending ruling in the UK Supreme Court in the matter of Cadder v Her Majesty’s Advocate and is planning for any impact it may have. Until a decision is made we cannot comment on the details of the case.”
In other words rather than being proactive on what is a justice issue, they are hedging their bets.
If the Cadder Case fails then they are quite happy to go back to denying people detained in custody their human rights.
What a brave new Scotland we are heading towards, doesn’t it look eerily similar the corrupt Scotland that has gone before?
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
George George George.
ReplyDeleteThe 'Tartan Tories' of the SNP aren't concenred about protecting people human rights. 3 years in power and nothing, MacAskill has been a flop as justice secretary, who in their right mind releases the biggest mass murderer in Scotland. now its batten down the hatches with emergency legislation, more tartan tory knee reaction. Roll on Holyrood 2011 and a Labour epic victory
Scots will protect Scots, don't think so, baled out by England again.
ReplyDeleteThe question you should ask was where were your precious SNP, this happened on their watch. Vote Labour 2011 matey bhoy.
ReplyDeleteTartan Tories?
ReplyDeleteYou and your Anglo-unionist kind make me sick...
You would actively sit back and prefer Scotland to be subject to whatever punitive measures the Con Dems decide to foist on us from London, leaving us completely impotent with no powers, instead of voting for a party that puts Scotland and the Scots people of all hues first
Tartan Tories???
Time to change the tune - scaremongering and slander dont wash anymore and people are getting wise to you
"George George George.
ReplyDeleteThe 'Tartan Tories' of the SNP aren't concenred about protecting people human rights. 3 years in power and nothing, MacAskill has been a flop as justice secretary, who in their right mind releases the biggest mass murderer in Scotland. now its batten down the hatches with emergency legislation, more tartan tory knee reaction. Roll on Holyrood 2011 and a Labour epic victory"
Kenny MacCaskil who received plaudits from amongst others Arun Ghandi and Nelson Mandela for his actions...
Give us Richard Baker any day eh?
The same Richard Baker who actively encouraged the Americans to interfere in our justice system.
The same Richard Baker who demanded that a patients medical records be made public, something that had never been done previously
The same Richard Baker who questioned due process and second guessed the doctors' diagnoses?
If an American, a French or a Chinese politician came out and actively encouraged another country and another jurisdiction to become involved in the jurisprudence of that country they would be tried for treason, but over here it's ok????
And you think that this guy has got the nous to run Scotlands Justice department?
Says more about you and your kind...
"Scots will protect Scots, don't think so, baled out by England again."
ReplyDeletehttp://newsnetscotland.com/economy/861-world-renowned-economist-says-scotland-subsidising-rest-of-uk
Read this and learn something
Hi George
ReplyDeleteMay 2011 will see another round of mass vote rigging by the Zionist/Freemasonic 'elite'. It's a done deal...
The SNP heirarchy has hijacked the Scottish National Movement at the behest of the London Establishment.
Have a gander at Liebors Angioli here:
http://www.davidicke.com/articles/child-abuse-mainmenu-74/30693-scottish-paedophile-ring-exposed
Nat troll
ReplyDelete'And you think that this guy has got the nous to run Scotlands Justice department?'
Is a geezer who releases convicted mass murderers got nous? What mass murderers has Richard Baker MSP released or supported.
The so-called Lockerbie bomber was innocent. You'll find those resposible hiding somewhere in headquarters in Langley in McLean, unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, a few miles west of Washington, D.C.
ReplyDelete