Scottish independence: UK Supreme Court says SNP Government acted unlawfully in denying Scots their human rights, Salmond is losing trust of Scots

Dear All

It seems that SNP Ministers are bracing themselves for hundreds of compensation claims after a landmark Supreme Court ruling that they have acted unlawfully.

It appears that human rights so valued in the free world don’t get the same respect in Scotland under the leadership of Alex Salmond and his government.

One of the things I have highlighted in the Justice brief is the need to appoint two deputy justice ministers, one to deal with day to day problems and the other to deal with law review and special projects.

Kenny MacAskill, the pal of Alex Salmond has left Scotland looking like a laughing stock and a third world country.

Awhile ago he was forced to openly say he supported human rights while having a track record of deny them using his Office of State.

It has now been left to the UK Supreme Court again to defend the human rights of Scots as five law lords yesterday issued the first constitutional ruling that the SNP government had failed to protect the right of hundreds of mental health patients.

Through-out the entire term of the first SNP Government nothing was done and this failure continued into the second term, no one in the SNP Government was bothered that such a scandal was allowed to continue.

The latest judgment shows how ordinary Scots need the UK Supreme Court at present, patently trust in SNP Ministers protecting ordinary rights is open to question, when it comes down to it, it appears that Alex Salmond’s Government Ministers automatically side with those against the people.

Contained within the Mental Health Act there is provision to allow for such appeals, but the old familiar story of lack of action by ministers has been brought into the public domain.

Didn’t George Laird highlight the need to send SNP Ministers back to their desks?

George Laird right again!

We are where we are following a 2006 test case brought by a man detained at Leverndale Hospital in Glasgow. Patient "RM" had been institutionalised for 35 years after a road accident left him with significant mental health difficulties.

A tribunal found he was unable to lodge an appeal against his security level because the legislative statutory instruments to the Mental Health Act 2003 had not been passed. This lead to his solicitor Frank Irvine argued his client had been detained in conditions of excessive security and that his quality of life, liberty and his prospects for release would be improved were he to be transferred to an open ward.

Lord Hope, Lady Hale, Lord Wilson, Lord Reed and Lord Carnwath unanimously upheld the patient's appeal against an earlier Court of Session ruling, finding:

"The failure by the [Scottish] ministers to draft and lay regulations, and their continued failure to do so since [May 1, 2006] was and is unlawful."

One of the things which the SNP keep bragging about is that they stand for fairness, equality and social justice.

Does this case pass any of these tests?

Sadly no, in the Scottish National Party under the leadership of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, fairness, equality and social justice are only for the rich as case after case proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Mr Irvine said:

"The implications of the ruling are fairly significant and immediately there are several hundred people who should now have the right to appeal. The question of damages for patients who have been unable to appeal since 2006 and the suggestion of compensation following this ruling of unlawfulness is now a live one. This ruling is to be welcomed not just for our client but for the many individuals who have been denied a right of appeal enshrined in law and passed by the Scottish Parliament."

Niall McCluskey, QC, said:

"The key issue here is the rights of the individual, a mental health patient, who was unable to bring an appeal about the standard of his detention."

Human rights lawyer John Scott said:

"The Mental Health Act was intended to allow our human rights legislation to be human rights proofed and to try to thwart it on still an unexplained basis flies in the face of that."

Public Health Minister Michael Matheson said the Government was considering the terms and implications of the judgment.

Scots need the UK Supreme Court at present because we can’t trust Alex Salmond and the SNP Government to ensure that ordinary working class people get the human rights protection they are entitled too.

Alex Salmond famously said:

'My problem is that I have too many talented people and not enough Cabinet positions'.

He really does set the bar so low for his clique!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University