Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Scottish independence: Lord Hope says Kenny MacAskill’s corroboration law reforms are 'potentially dangerous', justice is a central pillar of a democracy and key plank of any independence bid, the SNP have totally destroyed their credibility on Law and Order


















Dear All

Law and Order!

So, let us get it right, Scotland hasn’t had a Justice Minister since the election of 2007.

Alex Salmond loaded up his Cabinet with his cronies from the ‘79 Group’, and what a bang up job they have done of wrecking everything if they have got their hands on.

Special mention should go to Kenny MacAskill who released the biggest mass murderer in modern Scottish history, and then let him waltz out of the country.

‘Am leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I will be back gain…’

Since that debacle, Kenny MacAskill has tried unsuccessfully to top this unpardonable folly.

To that end he has wrecked Scottish Justice much like a bull in a China shop, from defending the Crown impinging the Human Right to a fair trial to closing down local Courts, MacAskill certainly has done a number on Scottish Justice but try as he might, he can’t escape Al Megrahi.

Al Megrahi maybe dead but his legacy and the problems he created remain like a very bad smell for MacAskill.

My favourite blunder is the Peter Cadder case which went to the UK Supreme Court, Elish ‘Labour’ Angiolini was in charge of the PF service; she gladly fought to keep Scots accessing their legal rights which had been replaced by “safeguards”.

So, her and her team of hotshot legal eagles got a trip to the UK Supreme Court in London to argue a case which any second year law student could drive a train through or coach and horses if you prefer.

Backed up by Alex Salmond and Kenny MacAskill to the hilt  no less!

Unfortunately for them and Angiolini, they ran into a rather awkward stumbling block called Lord Hope.

Lord Hope reset Scots Law in order to protect the public. It was a classic judgment by the UK Supreme Court. In my youth I was a big fan of Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls, he was a legal eagle on the genius level, his contract law observations were the stuff of legend and text book. Lord Hope is just as good!

Elish Angiolini has since become all fuzzy since leaving the Procurator Fiscal Service and doing odd jobs for the Scottish Government about how awful places like Cornton Vale Prison is, apparently prior to this ‘new’ Angiolini model coming online, she had no problem stuffing as many women in there as possible.

Go figure!  

Fast forward to modern day Scotland and the Scottish National Party is tampering with justice again and not in a good way, they want to scrap corroboration, and to justify their meddling they are using the emotional highly charged issue of rape as an excuse. Rape is a serious crime, conviction rates aren’t very good, this is a problem but scrapping corroboration isn’t the answer.

Rather than improve the Prosecution Service, the SNP Government seeks to drop the bar of proof to little better than a witchcraft trial, someone screams ‘witch’, points the finger and the person is carried off to a baying mob. 

And that happy scenario can happen to your father, your mother, brother, sister, cousin, next neighbor or even the local idiot who can be condemned because he has a bad haircut. In the Jo Yeates case, the press singled out the landlord on the basis he looked like a weirdo and he had a bad haircut.

Alex Salmond has a bad haircut, doesn’t he?

What happens if someone screams ‘witch’ and points the finger at him?

Does he get carted off on the back of a cart with veggies flung at him; surely any man who brushes his hair forward must be automatically found guilty and then must prove his innocence?

Justice under the SNP is a joke.

Anyway, Lord Hope has decided to help the SNP out and give his opinion on the scrapping corroboration, saying that it is 'quite dangerous'.

When the SNP tamper with corroboration they leave the door open to appeal after appeal, you don’t scrap a historic rule of Scots law designed to prevent miscarriages of justice without consequences.

If we take the Offensive Behaviour at Football Law, we see the SNP getting above themselves, that law is an abortion, you could if you keep giving a chimp a packet of crayons eventually so they say get the works of Shakespeare.

In the SNP, they would still be drawing pictures akin to finger painting under ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond and Scotland’s unpopular Deputy First Minster Nicola Surgeon.

Lord Hope of Craighead says he would be “very sad” to see the abolition of corroboration and hopes that Kenny MacAskill could pursue a “wiser” and less radical alternative.

Not enough brain cells to spin up a solution of merit.

Corroboration requires at least two pieces of evidence for a criminal conviction to succeed, this is to stop injustice; the law is sound but has been blamed as I previously mentioned for low conviction rates in rape and domestic violence cases.

When it comes down to one person's word against another's, justice should never be about who is the best story teller.

The intervention by Lord Hope is significant, he isn’t any old lawyer, if Scotland was to become independent, people of his calibre would be required to train the judiciary in ethics, he is by any measure a superstar.

MacAskill on the other hand isn’t a superstar, he is Salmond’s creature; if he is the best that is on offer then behind him must be real trash of pond like proportions.

He insists corroboration has “failed Scotland” by allowing offenders to get away with crimes committed in private or where there are no witnesses. Is MacAskill proposing that he is making a perfect legal system?

No!

Will chances of injustice increase?

Yes!

MacAskill decided to abolish corroboration after a review by Lord Carloway, the Lord Justice Clerk, after reading his conclusions, his arse should have been fired off the bench immediately in my opinion.

The SNP have an uncanny habit of finding someone who agrees with them after they do a review which reaches the same conclusion they wanted.

MacAskill in selling this pup said that he will increase protection against miscarriages of justice in place by increasing the majority of jurors who need to agree on a guilty verdict from eight to 10.

Wow!

Not good enough.

So, who can sit on a jury?

Pretty much anyone, low IQ, not a problem, crazed bigot, not a problem, couldn’t give a fuck, not a problem either. And of course my favourite, those who don’t want to convict anyone of anything, because they don’t like it! That last category may in part explain the low conviction rates in many cases where doubt is in the minds of people. 

Opposition to this disastrous policy includes, sheriffs, lawyers and academics who all warned MacAskill’s proposed safeguards of increasing the number from 8 to 10 as a standard was lower than in other countries without corroboration.

 In other countries at least 80 per cent of jurors have to agree on a guilty verdict that would mean that 12 people would have to vote guilty for a conviction. MacAskill isn’t a Justice Minister because he isn’t impartial; he is just a useless git trying to outrun his shame.

One of the pillars for Scottish independence is the unshakeable faith that Scottish people must have in their justice system; it is a fundamental requirement that is bedrock to any successful bid. So in sacrificing corroboration on the ‘altar of stupidity’, this act by the Scottish National Party Government effectively ties Scotland to a No Vote. Scottish people need access to the UK Supreme Court, we need people like Lord Hope because Alex Salmond and the SNP cannot be trusted on justice matters.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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