Lady Dorrian’s Law
For the avoidance of any doubt, this site does not believe that Scotland’s second most senior judge, Lady Leeona Dorrian, is corrupt.
It does not believe that she is acting at the behest of the Scottish Government or the First Minister, even though Lady Dorrian is known to wish to succeed Lord Carloway as the country’s most senior judge when he steps down in the near future and that position – Lord President of the Court of Session – is in the First Minister’s gift.
What this site does believe is that she’s acting out of bias. Lady Dorrian is known to wish to dispense with juries in sexual-assault trials, and it’s our belief – based on observing her conduct during the trial of Craig Murray and her apparent emotional investment in the case – that that’s because she belongs to the sizeable group of people who fundamentally think that all acquittals in such cases are wrongful, and that in essence any man ever accused of rape or sexual assault is automatically guilty merely by dint of having been accused, on the grounds that no woman would ever lie about such a thing.
(Or more frighteningly, that a small minority of accusers DO lie but the false convictions or ruined lives of a few men are a price worth paying.)
Her actions, though – in jailing Craig Murray for eight months for a crime (so-called “jigsaw identification”) which is hopelessly ill-defined and for which nobody has ever been imprisoned before in all of world history – risk doing more to undermine the rights of women alleging sexual assault than any individual ever has before.
Craig Murray goes to prison without the benefit of a jury, having been denied the basic right to an appeal, and most remarkably of all, not knowing who he allegedly identified and how. In an extraordinary circumstance more befitting of a Franz Kafka novel, at no point has he been told specifically who he “jigsaw identified” or how, nor why he is the only person being held responsible for the construction of what is apparently and oxymoronically a one-piece “jigsaw”. Only in serious terrorism cases are the most elementary principles of law and justice normally cast aside with such abandon.
And in whose name has this happened? The complainers in the Alex Salmond case were all either conspirators, liars or both. Despite having the benefit of resources unimaginable to ordinary women and the full weight of the state behind them, a mostly-female jury rejected every single one of their claims.
(Can you honestly imagine anyone alleging that a man once “pinged” their curly hair in a lift in the presence of other people going to the police and being taken seriously, to the point where the matter ended up in Scotland’s highest court?)
It is materially inescapable that at least some of the witnesses – most notably Woman H – were deliberately and knowingly lying, yet no investigations for perjury have been undertaken, in stark contrast to the millions of pounds of public money and hundreds of hours of police time which were wasted on trying to prove that Salmond once briefly touched someone’s leg during a 60-second journey in the back of a car.
Alex Salmond was cleared in court on every single charge, an innocent man. But Lady Dorrian’s seeming obsessive determination to protect even conspirators and perjurers from any consequences has led to an inescapable and grave conclusion.
The quotes above are taken from Lady Dorrian’s judgement of 25 March this year. Others have already highlighted the deeply disturbing notion laid out in them that online journalists should be subjected to different interpretations of the law than those applied to newspaper journalists, on the comically absurd grounds that the latter are accountable to the “IPSO Editors’ Code Of Practice” – a toothless self-regulator that administers occasional mild slaps on the wrist and tiny corrections at the bottom of page 2 rather than prison sentences.
But what they also unavoidably imply is this: that in future, anyone knowing the names of complainers in a sexual-assault case should name them in public at the first available opportunity, loudly and repeatedly.
If Craig Murray had done so before Alex Salmond’s trial, he would have been breaking no law (assuming of course that he did so in a manner not prejudicial to the case, another law from which “mainstream” journalists are apparently exempt).
He and anyone else could then have named them freely both during and after the trial when their claims were revealed to be fabrications, because obviously their identities would already be in the public domain.
In Scotland, unlike England, no automatic right of anonymity in sexual assault cases exists. It has to be specifically ordered by the judge in each case, something that didn’t happen until the first day of the Salmond trial after James Doleman of Byline Times directly named one of the complainers in a tweet, for which major breach he was merely admonished and excluded from the court on subsequent days.
(This is despite the fact that Byline Times is not subject to IPSO adjudication and indeed calls the organisation a “sham regulator”, and therefore by Lady Dorrian’s own ruling she should have treated Doleman more harshly than “proper” journalists.)
This, clearly, would be a wildly undesirable state of affairs. Genuine victims – unlike the Salmond complainers – would be strongly dissuaded from making their complaints, in the knowledge that their names would be public and they themselves might be subject to intrusive and traumatic scrutiny in the press.
But it is the inescapable logic of Lady Dorrian’s judgement. Naming all of the Salmond complainers before the trial would have protected Craig Murray, and he wouldn’t be going to jail today (nor would Clive Thomson, who served a six-month sentence earlier this year for naming some of them on social media).
His restraint and decency in not wishing to do so is what has condemned a frail and elderly man who represents no danger to the public to months of vindictive and health-endangering imprisonment, in direct contravention of the supposed presumption in Scotland against such sentences.
We do not believe that that was Lady Dorrian’s intention. But it is the reality. If you don’t want to be imprisoned in Scotland for “jigsaw identification”, the only sure way to protect yourself is to name absolutely everyone before the trial.
The ruinous determination of the Scottish Government and the Scottish judicial system to put someone, anyone connected to Alex Salmond in jail out of the First Minister’s demented paranoia and sheer malice has had many disastrous outcomes, for individuals, taxpayers and the country as a whole. We could write an article 10 times as long as this one about all the terrifying aspects of the case. But this may be the worst of all.
If you’re a woman in Scotland and someone has raped or sexually assaulted you, Lady Dorrian has just made it far more dangerous for you to go to the police, because journalists – or at least, those journalists not loyal to the state – will now have to very seriously consider naming you immediately purely as a self-protection precaution.
Today is a terrible day for Craig Murray, journalism, freedom of speech, accountability, and the integrity and reputation of Scottish justice. But it’s also a terrible day for victims of sexual assault and rape, and for that everyone involved, from the First Minister and her fellow conspirators down, should hang their heads forever in shame.
I struggle to understand why the Supreme Court would not hear the appeal. I am sure that Scotland’s justice system has been corrupted. But the Supreme Court is U.K. Have they got to them too?
I’m going to disagree, Stu. I think she is corrupt and self-serving, and her instinctive bias against juries, for example, is just the cream on top of the rancid cake.
There is a danger in any justice system of those dispensing justice being susceptible to notions of….godliness.
I think Dorrian has reached that point, and would be a even greater danger to the integrity of Scottish justice, such as it is now, (in spite of the mutual machinations of ScotGov and the Crown Office) if she were to get the top spot.
Excellent article. A very thorough well argued point.
Today is a disgrace. Scotland and those behind this kafka-eque plot, should hang their heads in shame. Shame, shame, shame, on all of them.
Craig Murray goes to jail, still not knowing who he allegedly identified, when, or indeed how. No appeal, no jury. He is, in every possible way, a political prisoner.
For the record, I have read most of Craig’s output, and STILL to this day, do not know for sure who the accusers were.
As for Nicola Sturgeon? well, we now see her and know her for what she truly is. Eyes fully opened.
Be mindful of defamation, pal…
Again, a first class example of investigative, evidence-based journalism from Wings. A contrast to what has been written today in the msm print-media, including the BBC Scotland website, where the Craig Murray conviction was set out in unfairly edited terms.
Another point: speaking to people who attended Alex Salmond’s trial I hear that the press area was crammed full of broadcast and print media journalists including those appearing daily on tv and radio. All of these so-called professional journalists heard the nonsensical or perjuring accusations against Alex Salmond and therefore fully understood that the case was a stitch-up.
Yet since the trial, each nefariously writes and speaks of Mr Salmond, or treats him in interviews, as though he were guilty. During the trial, a well known broadcast journalist audibly shared a view with a colleague that the evidence against Alex Salmond would never gain a conviction. Yet she proceeded to make a television programme aimed at deceiving the public into believing that a miscarriage of justice had taken place.
in future, anyone knowing the names of complainers in a sexual-assault case should name them in public at the first available opportunity, loudly and repeatedly.
I really wish this had been done in this case. The boil could have been lanced a lot faster if people had known the truth from the outset. As it is, we have another 5 years of its poison infecting Scotland.
As for women suffering rape, sexual assault or bullying/harassment, this case has been the very worst possible demonstration of how pointless it is for anyone with no power to make any kind of claim. It’s been the biggest demonstration of just how the powerful control absolutely everything. If you’re a powerless, junior civil servant or member of party staff suffering under someone in the power clique, good luck having even the most serious of issues addressed. If you’re exceptionally powerful, you can have someone imprisoned for absolutely notihing.
Is this an example of just how far a regime will go if you betray it, at least in their eyes.
Thoughts with Craig.
Worries for Scottish justice.
It feels like the end of days, I wonder how many more will be silenced or imprisoned at the behest of the “Mighty Murrells”.
There are clearly many strands in this saga, but the desire to achieve absolute control over every aspect of Scottish life, to the extent of silencing forever her predecessor and lining up her successor, to hate crime and GRA, this truly is the machinations of deranged ideology commensurate with any totalitarian failed state.
I think a book detailing every miserable episode of this woman’s conduct and that of her acolytes should be written by someone in the know, hint, hint, and put out in the public domain for all to see as it is clear her tame churnalists and media are never going near it.
Good luck Craig, stay strong!
Thank you Stuart for everything you have done and sacrificed to open our eyes to this monstrous excuse for a woman and her sycophants!
Wonderful piece of journalism again Rev.
I thank you for and although I almost never disagree with you
the woman’s actions fit in perfectly with my ideas of corrupt,
of self serving, of developing the system to prevent freedom of
speech and defining the law on which you are charged.
How can anyone be in her position with an attitude that all rape accusations
against men must be found guilty?
There are thousands of cases where men have proved charges against them to be undeniably false.
I say again, this woman is no lady!
Also to the point, if the accuser can be made anonymous, then surely the accused has the same right.
It is well known that an allegation of sexual misconduct against a man is a piece of shit he can never wash off his character, even if he is innocent.
One law for them, another for us…
There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that if Craig had been tried before a jury, he’d be a free man right now.
Instead just another malicious procecution in New Scotland.
Craig has been made an example of but far from feeling vindicated or safer, I fear Dorrian has painted a bigger target on the Alphabetties back.
Instead of being exposed simply as liars, they have brought genuine injury to a man who could have, but was decent enough not to name them.
Serious question, what if Craig’s health does not hold up?
This is not going to end well for anyone.
The first casualty to date is the Scottish Judicial system.
Utterly appalling.
Alex says:
30 July, 2021 at 12:15 pm
“I think Dorrian has reached that point, and would be a even greater danger to the integrity of Scottish justice, such as it is now, (in spite of the mutual machinations of ScotGov and the Crown Office) if she were to get the top spot.”
Sad to say, Alex, given that this is in the gift of evil Sturgeon, she has just utterly ensured that she will get the gig!
Shameful!
Corruption – misuse of public office for private or political gain. Professor Rose-Ackerman
I have the benefit of not knowing who the various alphabet women are.
I read all of Craig Murray’s writings on the trial as I did on here. I followed it as closely as I could.
I can tell you right now it was not possible to identify any of the accusers based on Craig Murray’s or Wings’ writing.
I tried like fuck, believe me.
If this is about his Yes Minister parody I believe that was written weeks before Salmond was even charged with anything. So how could it be a contempt of court.
Dorrian is corrupt, how do I know? Well she has just sent an innocent man to jail. I don’t care how she got so twisted and perverted in her actions… it is what it is. She is rancid.
How the hell can someone who believes in things so manifestly legally unfair (no appeal, not knowing what you are accused / convicted of, no need for juries, no need for evidence) who is also as openly biased as she is actually be a judge? How is this even possible?
And this is the judge going to get the top job in Scotland… wow.
You think of a judge as someone who should be impartial, unbiased, fair-minded, honest and open in their reasonings…
Looking at the AS and CM trials Dorrian looks to me to be the living embodiment of the opposite all of all those qualities.
That we are calling the trial Kafkaesque I think sums up just how far gone she is.
Be that ‘corruption’ by her own twisted pet ideologies, or just raw fulminating misandry who knows and frankly who cares… because it all still amounts to a rotten judge sending innocent people to jail to enhance her position with her equally bent boss.
Dorrian is right ‘up’ there with the one shafting Assange. It is funny how all of this seems it to intertwine…
It is funny how all of this seems it to intertwine…
It’s also terrifying. This is not just a corrupt administration in Scotland – if it was the UK state and pro union media would swat it away like a flea. No way in hell would the UK state allow a jumped up, devolved, SNP leader to be in control of the civil service, Crown Office, justice system etc and using it for malicious prosecutions. (Which, if that were the case, you’d expect to be focussed on maliciously prosecuting unionists in any case). This is the SNP devolved Scottish administration acting in consort with much higher powers, including the UK government. And key to that is undermining and destroying the independence case and movement.
If the names of those who accused Salmond of various offences came into the public domain at any time, are they not still there? Is it now unlawful to name a name that came into the public domain,and is already in the public domain, just because a judge says so?
Is this how they dispose of scots law I wonder. Things are in such a state that folk might not even raise a whimper.
Once again a brilliant article, Stuart, thank you. I really hope you reconsider and come back all guns blazing. We really need your continued high standards of input for the cause. We badly need all our top players to promote & support ALBA and get the truth out to the public.
__________
Campbell Watson says on 30 July, 2021 at 12:09 pm:
“I struggle to understand why the Supreme Court would not hear the appeal. I am sure that Scotland’s justice system has been corrupted. But the Supreme Court is U.K. Have they got to them too?”
Remember, Craig Murray is a former UKGov diplomat who has supported Julian Assange all along. As far as i’m concerned the whole thing reeks of malicious revenge. A collaboration between Sturgeon & Co and the current UKGov.
This is fascism in motion. In SCOTLAND!!!
How the fuck did it ever come to this?
On Facebook for example, I’m forever reading memes about how fascism starts, what the warning signs are and all the rest of it and yet, the people of Scotland have allowed it to rise without batting a fucking eyelid.
Scotland is a fascist state right now, people are being cowed under varying threats not to speak out.
And what of the MSPs and membership of the SNP? What are they saying or doing about it?
Absolutely fuck all, that’s what.
As an immediate start, everyone should resign their SNP membership forthwith. Fuck the SNP, they don’t give a fuck about you or Scotland, so why give them fucking your money?
Fascism has started in Scotland STOP IT NOW before it’s too late to do anything.
AUOB should IMMEDIATELY be marching on Bute House, bring Charlotte Square to a standstill. What are the police going to do? Send out the horses and at the same time, send out a message to the rest of the world?
Fuck’s sake Scotland, take some fucking action.
Also to Campbell Watson on 30 July, 2021 at 12:09 pm:
Forgot to state in my previous comment, there are civil servants involved in all this scandalous false rape allegations nonsense and it is the UKGov that controls them.
Scottie dog at 0102pm,
Exactly. I have been thinking the same since the Salmond case. Create a ‘crisis’ in the Scottish legal system, then announce a London-run process to ‘reform'(i.e, make subservient to English law).
Their really are dark forces at work in Scotland right now. Probably all in that hideous new English colonial government building, just off the royal mile in Edinburgh.
I’m reading this, and know what pops into my head?
Orwell’s 1984.
”If there was hope, it must lie with the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated…
Be a prole. Your country needs proles.
We need our YES army, “our” proles, to wake up, in all their swarming disregarded masses, right now, and right here, in Scotland.
We live in worrying times.
I hope Craig stays strong and writes a book on his release about the whole scandalous affair, and earns lots of money.
Those in power think we are stupid
This morning. Craig Murray has written a short piece on his Blog:
link to craigmurray.org.uk
Antoine Bisset says:
30 July, 2021 at 1:02 pm
…. Is it now unlawful to name a name that came into the public domain?
When a man goes to jail this day for NOT naming them… I think the answer to your question is no.
All of this has happened gradually but relentlessly over the last 7 years.
We have been shocked so many times along the way at what is being done you become almost ‘used to it’. You go a bit numb and it fails to shock you, you start to expect it as the new normal.
I say to myself imagine if I could take a time machine back to the day of the referendum and bring my(2014)self forward to today to see what Nicola Sturgeon has done with the 7 years since… how shocked would 2014 me be. I think I would struggle to believe it.
Who the fuck would believe this… I think all the ‘2014 versions’ of ourselves would be chin on the floor shocked at what Nicola has done since.
Sturgeon’s government and the things happening since she took power are extremely sinister.
They tried to put Salmond into some no doubt covid infested prison and narrowly failed despite rigging almost everything and now they are doing it to Craig Murray, another mega-softie elderly guy. It is beyond disgusting and these people doing it are playing for lives even if we are not.
Look at the ones they are going after… Craig Murray and Alex Salmond FFS… just decent people doing what they believe in.
The truth about modern Scotland is far, far stranger than poor old Franz Kafka’s fiction.
I’ve wanted to resist any comparison with some of the old Soviet bloc countries but it’s getting harder and harder not to see the similarities.
High prison population.
High number of deaths in police custody.
Dissidents threatened and now jailed.
Significant restrictions on free speech.
Judicial system compromised by closeness to govt.
Monolithic, unresponsive, unaccountable bureaucracies.
Press submissive to governing party.
Poor old corrupt Scotland…what a fucking nightmare.
Superb, Stu, even though I can’t agree with your opening remarks re: Dorrian, just superb!
What about the European Court of Human Rights? Since the Supreme Court wouldn’t even hear an appeal, doesn’t that grant immediate leave to take the case to Europe?
Excellent article Stuart, so good to have your input again. None of us can remain silent in the face of such injustice.
“His restraint and decency in not wishing to do so is what has condemned a frail and elderly man who represents no danger to the public to months of vindictive and health-endangering imprisonment.”
Although, with no disrespect to Craig, I wouldn’t put him in quite the same bracket as John Maclean, I think there are clear parallels to the way he is being treated.
The time has come to draw inspiration from our Irish brothers and sisters and our very own James Connolly. It is time to gather in Edinburgh and make a proclamation reiterating the Declaration of Arbroath, that we. the people of Scotland. are sovereign and as such declare the rule of Westminster and its puppet government in Holyrood to be unconstitutional and illegal. An interim people’s government can then be established to transition to an independent republic. If the current MSPs refuse to vacate Holyrood then they should be circumvented. And as we have already established our sovereignty in battle through the Wars of Independence then we have no need to return to violence to assert our rights which have already been won. Anyone who tries to stop us will be shooting innocent and unarmed civilians who are acting entirely within their rights, and from a sense of duty to their country and to each other. We have to be prepared to make that sacrifice, because, if we don’t, then the alternative is to die a slow and lingering death.
“First the Scots must recognise that they are a nation, a sovereign nation, next that they are in a sovereign country and last that they have all the authority they can ever need. That they only need apply it. Not ask, not win, not gamble. Simply assert the authority that they already have.”
Gayle Miller
Campbell Watson @ 12.29
The Supreme Court has washed its hands of the matter – because there is no case.
This innocent man has been jailed because a Judge wants him there. The Establishment wants him there and Nicola Sturgeon wants him there.
To be honest I think he is a big thorn in the side of the Brutish Government and Secret service that does what it wants.
This is a political act associated with Assange.
Shame on those who have done this.
Scotland weeps.
I disagree, as Craig Murray said about James Woolfe, that he’s in it up to his neck, so I feel Lady Dorrian is in the same boat.
The only reason Alex Salmond walked out of the High court in Edinburgh was that he had a jury, had Salmond not had, what’s to become, the luxury of a jury, I think Lady Dorrian would have sent him to prison, on some sort of obscure and convoluted ruling that’s seen Craig Murray end up in a prison cell.
As the Roman superiors would say to their juniors when they looked upon their eagerness to please, your ambition is noticed, so Lady Dorrian’s ambition to reach the top post within her field, must surely have been noticed by Sturgeon.
One thing is painfully clear in Scotland/UK. Do not rock the boat against ‘The Establishment’. It will only get worse!
Be very careful Stu. You could be next and there is very little you can do if/when they come for you.
Probably Craig’s last blog post for the foreseeable future.
link to craigmurray.org.uk
Spot on with that last sentence
The cabal’s exploitation of the anonymity principle is an even more staggering betrayal of women than their transactivism
And I think you’re being too kind to Dorrian
Being a judge in both cases blew any chance she had of convincing anybody of her legal neutrality
In Sturgeons Tranny dominated Scotland you are guilty by dint of being a hetero man with a dick. The fact that Craig Murray was also recently a father means he is guilty of something- like sticking his dick somewhere the Tranny and Feminazi Brigade didn’t like him sticking it. Who would be a young heterosexual male in Scotland now – life must be hell for them. It was bad enough in my youth when the Feminazi’s were on the rise but now they occupy the Universities, Schools and the Legal Profession to name but a few arena’s of life.
This is what is going-on at the moment in Hungary and Poland. There is no distinction between parliamentarians and lawyers and they each cover each other’s backs.
Each are supposed to be there to protect the public, but what they are actually doing is protecting each other from the public.
It is so bad there that they may both be expelled from the EU because of it. They have both been warned that that is a possible consequence if they don’t get their house in order.
I don’t know if anyone remembers this – but The Spectator went to the Court of Session in order to question why needless redactions were being carried-out to Alex Salmond’s Fabiani Inquiry statement. The suspicion was that if material was redacted then Nicola Sturgeon couldn’t be questioned on it and that was the reason it was being done. It had nothing to do with identifying the alphabet women.
The hearing was in front of Lady Dorrian. Her position was essentially: ‘what has this got to do with me?’ My undertanding at the time was that the redactions were being carried-out by James Wolffe, who is a lawyer, and that was what it had to do with her.
Anyway, the publicity of the hearing ensured that the needless redactions were removed…..only to be reinstated a couple of days before Sturgeon gave evidence so that she didn’t have to answer any questions on it.
This gave rise to the Daily Mail headline a few days later which said: ‘Scotland – a banana republic without the bananas.’
This is another systemic failure brought on us by ALL at Holyrood and all of Scotland will suffer for it.
First class journalism Stu,thank you.
There is something deeply worrying happening in Scotland,
@Paul McRae
Be careful of defamation pal?
I disagree- this is an excellent piece of journalism. Measured, truthful, accurate.
Nic-Nic, The AlphaBettys and The Praetorian Guard
Who the fuck would believe this… I think all the ‘2014 versions’ of ourselves would be chin on the floor shocked at what Nicola has done since.
What I can’t fathom is how the people accepting, even cheering on, all this can reconcile it to their 2014 selves. If people had told them in a few years time they’d be cheering on a U.K. plot to imprison Salmond, be deriding Wings, Commonweal, AOUB and all other bloggers, cheering on Craig Murray being jailed, even as Pilger and Chomsky slate Scotland for it. What would their 2014 selves think of them?
Anyway, one thing this does show is just how good Salmond really was. And how incorruptible he must have been. Because this current SNP government is chalk and cheese from his. He actually made Scotland stronger, more confident and brought independence to within spitting distance. How fast we were sold out again when he stepped down.
“How the fuck did it ever come to this?”
Mist001.
It came to this because we have a colonial government that has self-interest and the status quo at heart. Alex Salmond’s return to politics threatened that, and Craig Murray’s excellent reporting on the his trail exposed it.
Both men had to be removed, Salmond had to be fitted up to stop him rallying the indy masses, but the jury acquitted him that’s why juryless trials are being pushed. Craig Murray has written like Stu, some fine articles on the machinations and the chicanery of the Scottish government, the compliant COPFS saw an opening to prosecute Murray however weak and vague it may be and have removed him from the scene for now.
The attempted prosecutions of indy minded bloggers is at the forefront of the Scottish governments agenda, Craig Murray, Mark Hirst, David Llewellyn, Manny Singh, Marion Millar, and of course our very own Stu Campbell have felt the force of their intentions, in Craig’s he know intimate UK state secrets, but is smart enough not to reveal them, I suppose Whitehall will be pleased that he’s going to be locked up, but also apprehensive that he might have a nervous breakdown in prison and speak his mind, on matters he might not do at liberty.
Craig Murray’s imprisonment in my opinion is a step too far by judiciary in Scotland, I like many have now lost all faith in the COPFS and the judiciary, and Holyrood’s politicians of whom not one has come out and condemned this madness.
God only knows what John Pilger, Noam Chomsky and even Julian Assange thinks of this wee tinpot colony now.
Stu Campbell makes some excellent points with his customary forthrightness and forensic skill. But as he notes, the implications of Lady Dorrian’s judgement are so manifold and far-reaching that it is not possible to touch on all of them in one short article. Every time I read about Craig Murray’s case I find some further perplexing or disturbing aspect.
For example, it occurred to me as I read Stu’s article that it would be quite difficult for any journalist to report or comment at all on a sex offence case lest what they write inadvertently constitute jigsaw identification when read in conjunction with what some other journalist has written.
From what Lady Dorrian has said we must assume that if one of those journalists worked for a ‘traditional’ media organ they would be exempt from prosecution. Only the journalist or commentator working in new media could expect to feel the full weight of Scotland’s justice system falling on them.
I totally concur with Stu Campbell’s rejection of any notion that Lady Dorrian is corrupt. But it is clear that something is clouding her judgement. If it isn’t the prejudice Stu has identified then what else could it be?
‘In Scotland, unlike England, no automatic right of anonymity in sexual assault cases exists. It has to be specifically ordered by the judge in each case, something that didn’t happen until the first day of the Salmond trial after James Doleman of Byline News directly named one of the complainers in a tweet, for which major breach he was merely admonished and excluded from the court on subsequent days.’
What would Woman H’s plan have been?
link to archive.is
An apparent text from Woman H to Woman J said: “I have a plan. And means we can be anonymous but see strong repercussions.”
‘In Scotland, unlike England, no automatic right of anonymity in sexual assault cases exists. It has to be specifically ordered by the judge in each case, something that didn’t happen until the first day of the Salmond trial’
Did the judge slip up by not ordering it earlier?
Is the sentencing of Craig Murray a way of making up for her error?
Campbell Watson says:
30 July, 2021 at 12:09 pm
I struggle to understand why the Supreme Court would not hear the appeal. I am sure that Scotland’s justice system has been corrupted. But the Supreme Court is U.K. Have they got to them too?
===========================================================
I have been wondering that.
So I also wondered if it might be about not being able to interfere in Scot’s Law? If that was the reason, it would be significant.
But as I am not a lawyer and the law isn’t an easy thing to fathom, maybe a lawyer on here can enlighten me/us.
They have to try and stop Craig because he has possession of the truth.
“while the perpetrators of this conspiracy to pervert the course of justice had the protection of the courts against exposure.
41. That accusers included :
redacted Nicola Sturgeon. First Minister of Scotland Leader of the SNP ;
redacted Ian Blackford, UK Parliamentary Leader for the SNP ;
redacted Angus Robertson, Former UK Parliamentary Leader of the SNP ;
redacted”
I don’t know about others but more and more I catch myself having to watch what I say when making comments on blogs. I’ve also written long paragraphs and then on second thoughts closed the webpage without pressing ‘send’.
We all know about censorship under dictatorships, but how many of us are now self-censoring, wondering whether our contributions might be read by or reported to ‘the authorities’?
We’ve got all this amazing array of technology for facilitating communication but we now have to think very, very carefully before communicating.
Living in this grey area between a proper democracy and an actual dictatorship feels like the worst of all possible worlds. A democracy should guarantee free speech, a dictatorship punishes free speech, but in Scotland you have to watch what you say just in case.
Fuck that.
The person who made the original complaint about whom the charging decision is being made is referred to as “the suspect”.
In these three situations the following two offences should be considered:
Perverting the Course of Justice [below], and
Wasting Police Time contrary to section 5(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1967 [see below].
Prosecutions for these offences in the situations above will be extremely rare and by their very nature they will be complex and require sensitive handling. On the one hand, victims of rape and / or domestic abuse making truthful allegations require the support of the criminal justice system. They should not be deterred from reporting their allegations. Nor should they be criminalised for merely retracting an allegation because true allegations can be retracted for a broad range of reasons. Very often such allegations are made by a person who is vulnerable or in the context of a relationship, often with a protracted and complicated history, all of which is bound to have a bearing on the issues in the case. On the other hand, false allegations of rape and / or domestic abuse can have serious adverse impact on the person accused. This is why these cases must be examined thoroughly by suitably experienced prosecutors who should strike the right balance between ensuring genuine victims are believed and not criminalised whilst recognising the need to protect the innocent from false allegations.
The following handling arrangements apply:
It is mandatory that all cases falling within this guidance are handled by lawyers in the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) Units.
CPSD will not deal with these cases during office hours and should advise the police to refer them to RASSO Units, under local charging arrangements. Where charges are sought out of hours on the Threshold Test then CPSD will follow their own Casework Assurance Process.
Trial advocacy must be undertaken by a Rape Specialist Advocate.
If the suspect is under 18 then the prosecutor must be both a rape and a youth specialist and any advocate must have experience of dealing with cases involving youths.
Any decision, whether to charge or not, must be ratified in writing by the the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the Area.
The Director of Legal Services must in all cases in which there is a decision to charge an offence of perverting the course of justice be notified and briefed prior to a decision being communicated.
This will ensure consistency of approach. Prosecutors reviewing these cases must have read the Principal Legal Advisor’s Report “Under the Spotlight” and be familiar with all relevant policies and legal guidance. These are listed at the end of this guidance. Further information about handling arrangements is set out in paragraph 42 and about the CCP ratification process at paragraphs 43 to 45.
Anonymity. Section 1 of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992 provides for lifelong anonymity for those who allege, or are alleged to have been, the victim of a sexual offence. The offences to which anonymity attaches are in Section 2 and include the main provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Anonymity is in the form of a prohibition on publication of any matter likely to lead members of the public to identify that person. Section 3 provides for the power to displace this anonymity. Accordingly, a suspect or a defendant alleged to have made a false allegation of a sexual offence nonetheless is the lifelong beneficiary of this anonymity unless and until it is displaced. Prosecutors should remind the court and other parties of these provisions so that the section 1 provisions are observed and so that appropriate representations can be made in respect of them.
Having just read the archived newspaper report that Ruby linked to, I would suggest that there’s a quote in the Times article that could aid jigsaw identification.
It’s a little odd how this theoretical doctrine works in practice is it not my lady?
See the damned internet in this country…. 4th attempt.
Sentence for Craig Murray reporting the truth but guilty of thoughtcrime according to one judges subjective opinion. 8 months Custodial sentence.
For sending death threats to a sitting MP, putting her in a state of fear and alarm and needing police protection. 160 hours Community Service.
After reading your interesting article, I find it hard to avoid the conclusion of corruption.
I do think this interpretation of the law will stop Alex Salmond from publishing a book on his experience. If this is the case who is the benefactor?
Never been a poster only a reader but feel compelled to today. This is a very dark day for Scotland and my heart goes out to Craig and his family. Perhaps a little late, I resigned my SNP membership today. I kept it as I still thought there was hope for the prize, but no I don’t like where this country is going now. There is plainly something very wrong and disturbing going on within the corridors of power in Scotland, I am very disappointed and saddened. I just thought we were better than this.
The injustice arising from the inherent incompetence of the legislation is old news.
The new news is that UK Supreme court appears to have no standing to correct decisions made in the High Court* if leave to appeal has not been specifically granted (ie despite that decision being ambiguous enough to have deferred incarceration pending an attempted appeal in any event).
In that context, M’lady has played a blinder.
*(even when such decisions are considered by some to be appallingly bias or to have been instructed by the Scottish Government or its First Minister)
Thank you for this, it’s very good to have your thoughts. One small point: from my memory of Craig Murray’s account, I don’t think Salmond actually pinged the hair; I think he leant forward with the intention of pinging it, but thought better of it and did not actually purpetrate the act. I think he admitted to this crime.
Something has gone very wrong at the Guardian. Corbyn and Salmond monstered; Assange, and now Murray, blanked out of existence. You expect lies in the rest of the papers, but I’d always trusted them.
@LaingB French
I’m pretty certain some of what you’ve written applies only to England and Wales.
Suddenly The justice system in North Korea is beginning to look pretty fair and honest .
Remember back just before the 2014 vote the real feeling of hope of a better future how fkn deluded we all were ,
I never noticed lurking in the shadows a real bitter twisted rotten to the core establishment , not the English establishment but our very own ever present Scottish lot who unseen pull the strings in every single organisation in the country ,
These people really control this country a wee whisper or a hint gets stuff done and the public , the mug public have little or no say ,
Unfortunately it’s becoming obvious the legal fraternity in this country are as bent as a five bob note self serving and looking after each other much the same as the medical profession they are past masters of covering up each other’s mistakes believe me I have seen it first hand .
A bright new future aye right with these bar stuards still around FFS how can a future be built on top of this fkn cess pit that comprises the Scottish establishment most of us never get close to their orbit because they inhabit a separate universe they frequent their own chosen shops , schools ,a whole gated community without the obvious eh Gates designed to keep the riffraff out .
Shit judgement, shit judiciary, shit government.
In summary; shit.
And to hell with Sturgeon’s SNP.
Robert, you are forgetting Gordon Dangerfield and those others supporting Mark H’s case. Then there’s Alex S’ legal team, and Joanna C supporting Marion M.
Just got two tickets to the Alba Party conference in Sept 11th & 12th on sale now.
Very well said, Wings, I am glad the blatant injustice and selective prosecution of Craig has stirred you to express yourself.
As you say, this will do nothing to support Dorrian’s fig leaf claim of concern for women victims of sex crimes. In fact the entire Salmond court case and its fallout, instigated by political malice, has probably done more to dissuade such women from coming forward than any supposed action or ‘intent’ of Craig’s. We know at least two of the complainers didn’t even want to go to court, but were dragooned into it by the political conspirators. We also know that nearly all of the charges were trivial and designed to mislead by accumulation. What wronged woman would want to be associated with such behaviour and derision?
But the most egregious thing about the sting on Craig is that essentially he has been jailed for a thought crime. No evidence for any identification, so Dorrian, with clear biased contempt for Craig, decided she alone knew what he ‘intended’ to do, ie what his thoughts were. I would be fascinated to know how she divined that and on what grounds you can jail somebody for what is claimed they thought – despite Craig clearly telling her what he did actually think.
Welcome to Sturgeon’s Scotland, where all dissenters to her despotism are dragged before the courts on the most flimsy and spurious of grounds. Meanwhile, friends and associatee can plead anonymity, walk free, get big payoffs and live the high life.
I take it Rev that you do not believe that Queen’s Consent applies to judicial appointments, as it applies to every piece of proposed legislation in Scotland?
link to archive.fo
link to archive.fo
link to archive.fo
Never thought I’d see the day I thought you were naive.
This is how colonial instruments worketh !
*perpetrate*
Scotland appears to have turned into a real life Mordor. A darkness has come creeping in. The dark Lord has total control.
Who will be the modern day Frodo Baggins to end the tyranny?
RE “Jigsaw identification”
There’s a judgement from the High Court, currently available via scotcourts.gov, involving someone whom I know of personally that I’ll refer to as AB, that “jigsaw identifies” another person that I’ll refer to as YZ (they were ‘anonymised’ in the judgement), whom I also know of personally, despite there previously having been a Contempt of Court order issued.
I only know the name of YZ in the case because AB was named in full.
Who should I report the author of the judgement to for this blatant example of Contempt of Court?
‘Critics’ say it is no defence to say ‘others did it’ and give an example of speeding. This is more like the Great Train Robbery and going after the most innocent and ignoring totally the others, including the one that bashed the train driver.
Dorrian’s bias is corruption as far as i am concerned. There were so many examples. Her language, her errors one of worst was referring to the betties as ‘victims’ and her defending MSM as being different from bloggers (that should have been questioned in a court of law).
She hated Craig for his questioning the establishment, i.e. herself and what she represents.
I think it’s a bit of an oxymoron to say Judge Dorrian (I refuse to call her a Lady) is not corrupt but instead biased, if her judgement is based on her own personal bias then she’s corrupt.
Her job is to base her judgement on the law as it stands not how she would like it to be
Get writing to your MP, MSP and FM. They will be wanting your vote sooner or later. As far as I am concerned it will be never as long as the present bunch of criminals are in charge.
I can only agree with Cpt Yossarian above on the Fabiani Inquiry business – it was both embarrassing and humiliating – after that I stopped defending l’Écosse et sa justice.
As for Craig M., the intention is obviously that he should go away, slide gently into that good night.
“It’s so difficult to prevent the covid from spreading in these circumstances !”
A thoughtful piece, thoughtfully written.
Lady Dorrian is wrong and for the wrong reasons.
as for
John Cleary says:
30 July, 2021 at 3:20 pm
I take it Rev that you do not believe that Queen’s Consent applies to judicial appointments, as it applies to every piece of proposed legislation in Scotland?
link to archive.fo
link to archive.fo
link to archive.fo
Never thought I’d see the day I thought you were naive.
I think you might consider who is being naive in this case:-)
Just a thought
I’m lost for words but thanks for this Stu. Always had a healthy respect for the law (being ex-police) but no more. You still leave other journalists online or in print wallowing shamefully in your wake.
There’s no doubt in my mind that you were the next target so quite understand your desire to retire however retirement is not all it’s cracked up to be.
It’s times like this that your absence is most keenly felt for many of us. Scotland needs you, the establishment doesn’t but we do.
We need to be able to read the truth given that we know we can’t trust Scotgov, UKgov, Police Scotland or the judiciary’s blatant demonstrations of dishonesty & yes corruption.
You are a beacon of hope for many.Don’t forget it!!
Take care, stay safe & thanks for all you do.
“These are dark, even dangerous days in Scotland. The stramash between the country’s two most famous politicians, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, has resulted in vital public documents being censored or banned, important information being suppressed, the media cajoled and cowed, the legal system brought into disrepute, the Scottish Parliament neutered and even bloggers being threatened with jail.” – 25th February 2021
I think that on balance one of Craig’s articles allowed me to identify one of the accusers, probably the most egregious of the Alphabet Sisters.
However I had previous knowledge of who certain others were but I suspect that even if I hadn’t then his article would have allowed me to identify her.
Having said that, Garavelli’s MSM articles allowed me to identify all of the Alphabet Sisters and I can say for certain that any previous knowledge was not required to do so.
I suspect the sentence & refusal to grant appeal has a deal more to do with a court case in Spain where he was to be a witness than it does with a group of (mainly) manipulated women (with one notable exception) bringing specious historical complaints against St Nicola’s nemesis.
YMMV of course…
Sometimes I can’t believe this day and age.
Another fact free piece.
It’s Byline Times, not Byline News. It’s regulated by Impress, not IPSO,
I accidentally named a complainer, in a different context, then immediately deleted it. Owned up to the court and apologised. There was no court order in place at the time, so no contempt, and I wasn’t excluded from proceedings.
Other than that spot on as always Mr Campbell.
For a Judge emotions have no place in a court of Law. She is in the wrong job. She needs to be deradicalized.
holymacmoses says:
30 July, 2021 at 3:52 pm
Holymac, I’m always interested in being educated. Would you please explain my naivete.
Always assuming you are not a drive by shooter.
I tried to identify the accusers using the jigsaw method and could only come up with S–Ky P-t-. Fucked if I know.
John Cleary says:
30 July, 2021 at 4:20 pm
Holymac, I’m always interested in being educated. Would you please explain my naivete.
Always assuming you are not a drive by shooter.
I’m a pacifist (at heart). I believe that you’re assuming a straight road in an area which has nothing but winding ways. Does that help?
it is hoped that lady dorrian is feeling a little uneasy about her judgement.for it will follow her for a period long after her retirement.she will i,m sure go down in legal history,(but for all the wrong reasons).craig murray will see this through to the europeon court& obtain his justice.
Vestas says:
30 July, 2021 at 4:07 pm
I think that on balance one of Craig’s articles allowed me to identify one of the accusers, probably the most egregious of the Alphabet Sisters.
However I had previous knowledge of who certain others were but I suspect that even if I hadn’t then his article would have allowed me to identify her.
Isn’t it implicit in what you say, that you had assembled other pieces of the jigsaw and from different sources? “Other” pieces of the jigsaw. OK, then so why vexatiously prosecute and jail for eight months one source of alleged identification when the others aren’t even cautioned or rebuked? How does one jigsaw piece exist without another? Is it a kind of Schrödinger’s Jigsaw?
How can any single source of information be prosecuted for “jigsaw” identification when by literal definition, the jigsaw requires more than one source? It’s all farce.
And be careful Vestas, that “previous knowledge” you refer to, the jigsaw pieces you already had, could be interpreted as your witnessing of a crime, and you might well have the power to denounce people and have them put in jail. Especially it would seem if they support Scottish Independence and are critical of the SNP.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, this site does not believe that Scotland’s second most senior judge, Lady Leeona Dorrian, is corrupt.” Of course you don’t believe that Darian is corrupt, but other people may believe that she is corrupt, and they may say that she is corrupt, but you can’t believe that or say it. Nor can I say that Dorian is corrupt, but other people can say it.
Of course you don’t believe, nor can you say “that she is acting at the behest of the Scottish Government or the First Minister, even though Lady Dorrian is known to wish to succeed Lord Carloway as the country’s most senior judge when he steps down in the near future and that position – Lord President of the Court of Session – is in the First Minister’s gift.” Other people may believe it and say it, but you can’t. Nor can I say that Dorian is corrupt, even though other people can say it.
Something, however, must be done about Dorian. It has been suggested that the Nobile Officium be used as a remedy in Craig’s case, where the judgement is so blatantly biassed and unjust. “The nobile officium is the extraordinary equitable jurisdiction of the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. It is a power of the court to give a remedy in two situations. First, where there is no legal rule adequately covering a given situation. Secondly, where there is a legal rule governing a situation, but its application would be unduly excessive, oppressive or burdensome. The court can use the nobile officium to grant any remedy or make any order.” (Stephen Thompson). Could the Scottish Parliament use the Nobile Officium to grant a remedy when justice has been so clearly corrupted? I think every avenue should be explored.
Is there a body to whom a complaint can be made about Dorian? If so, it must be made.
I very very seldom use the c word to describe anyone but I’m going to make an exception with this Dorian. What a cunt.
@Steelwires – This is the judgement that Holyrood declared they wanted and Lady Dorian delivered.
Union with England Act 1707 Section XIX
… And that the Court of Justiciary do also after the Union and notwithstanding thereof remain in all time coming within Scotland as it is now constituted by the Laws of that Kindom and with the same Authority and Priviledges as before the Union subject nevertherless to such Regulations as shall be made by the Parliament of Great Britain and without prejudice of other Rights of Justiciary.
I think the above is why the “Supreme Court” did not intervene
.
Stuart Campbell, you and Craig Murray are very brave individuals.
This is a very well written and extremely disturbing article.
I have no doubt, no doubt at all that Lady Dorrian has had a distinguished legal career with much merit.
But her reputation is tied with the current senior management of the Scottish Legal Establishment and by fact of the judiciary holding a political seat on the Scottish Executive’s cabinet table. Ergo her repute is also tied to the nature and actions of the current toxic Sturgeon regime.
If Lady Dorrian is to avoid the risk of bringing the Scottish Legal Establishment into disrepute, she must either recuse herself from sitting in judgement of all cases of this ilk, and/or resile any and all interest in being promoted to the position soon to be vacated Lord Carloway.
It is now untenable for Scotland’s second most senior judge to accept a promotion from Nicola Sturgeon.
That way lays the ruination of reputations and irrevocable damage to the very system of justice in Scotland.
To members of the Faculty of Advocates, several of whom I know will have read Stuart Cambell’s article on this page and the comments herein attached, I would ask you to reflect on the damage being done to the repute of your profession and the catastrophic consequence to the Scottish Legal System that are approaching?
I would ask you to take the requisite action to restore the reputation of our justice system please?
Anyone, and by that I include a majority of the Scottish electorate, the actions and costs in the “Rangers Case” are known across the country. THAT is precisely what erodes confidence in the current legal system.
The Rangers debacle has de facto, brought the Scottish Legal system into disrepute.
That monumental misjudgement by the legal establishments is set to be overtaken by the Murray Case.
I have no doubt an investigation of the SAFETY of the legal decisions leading up to today’s imprisonment of Ambassador Craig Murray will work its way inexorably through the system. If it is done with honour, vigour, independence and expedited, then there is hope for those with their hands currently on the levers of power to avoid their reputations laying in tatters and questions/actions surrounding their own liberty from arising.
The old maxim, “the truth will out” gains more gravitas the greater the injustice. As a law officer, I cannot recall witnessing a worse peril than that from the actions of the current legal establishment in today’s evidently questionable and compromised legal process. Whatever your belief system, every country needs a functioning and fair legal system. Ours is in harm’s way of being unfit for purpose and being seen as wholly questionable.
My worst fear, and this needs to be written, as Craig Murray adhere’s to the judgement authored by the pen of Lady Leeona June Dorian and surrenders himself to prison, is that Craig Murray does not survive his period of incarceration. Covid is rife. The new “D” variant of Covid is more contagious. That in and of itself may be grounds of appeal.
Craig has underlying health conditions that place him at risk of death. Lady Dorrian knows this. That is a fact which is capable of being proven beyond reasonable doubt. Yet still, against numerous legal protocols, Craig Murray faces a death sentence. It will be competent to register a formal complaint with and external police force against Ian Livingston as law officer and those in the Scottish Legal Establishment responsible for the death of Craig Murray if, what many of us fear, and what Lady Dorrian had been made fully aware of, happens.
To have Scotland’s most senior law officer and Scotland’s most senior judge at the centre of an inquiry held at UK or EU or UN level will, without any shadow of a doubt, bring Scotland’s legal system into disrepute. Officially. By so doing, then those law officers must face the consequences proscribed in law of brining the institution into disrepute.
One genesis of a remedy in the opaque workings of our legal system lays within the hands of members of the Faculty of Advocates. I would urge them to put in motion the legal protocols to extinguish the flames of this Bourach before the political deviations of a rogue First Minister bring the entire edifice of Scotland’s justice system crumbling into ruination and set back to the worst days of Medieval times.
No reasonable, honest or fair minded person wants any of this to happen. But justice eventually prevails in the majority of cases. A few legal reputations do hit the deck. But when you sign up for the job at the big chair in the Sheriff court, if your judgements are found to be unsound, then they become your epitaph. At the age of 64 years old, you have very few years in the legal system to ensure your legacy is untarnished. Today, some law officers have need of Brasso tarnish remover more than ever.
Ambassador Murray, thank you for the brave thing you did.
Stuart, Thankyou for your words above. Please watch your back. Witnesses are ready to attest as to comments she made about you from her thin angry lips. Watch your back, you are not safe.
Ruby says: at 2:00 pm
“What would Woman H’s plan have been?
link to archive.is
An apparent text from Woman H to Woman J said: “I have a plan. And means we can be anonymous but see strong repercussions.””
I’ve mentioned this a good while back in previous discussions on the subject.
Just how would Woman H be so up the curve on legal matters resulting in her being so confident to state what she did, without having first run said plan by those with significant power and influence.
There would be massive and far reaching implications if this plan didn’t play out as hoped.
There is no way someone would commit to such a serious course of action and entangle various other powerful individuals in it without being extremely confident it was controllable.
For the first time in my 69 years on this Planet, I wish I had been born in an other country.
James Doleman says:
30 July, 2021 at 4:16 pm
Another fact free piece.
It’s Byline Times, not Byline News. It’s regulated by Impress, not IPSO,
I accidentally named a complainer, in a different context, then immediately deleted it. Owned up to the court and apologised. There was no court order in place at the time, so no contempt, and I wasn’t excluded from proceedings.
Other than that spot on as always Mr Campbell.
Reply
Why did you feel the need to apologise when you had done nothing wrong?
Dan says:
Just how would Woman H be so up the curve on legal matters resulting in her being so confident to state what she did, without having first run said plan by those with significant power and influence.
There would be massive and far reaching implications if this plan didn’t play out as hoped.
There is no way someone would commit to such a serious course of action and entangle various other powerful individuals in it without being extremely confident it was controllable.
Reply
It was only controllable because journalists like Doleman were aware of the plan and knew he had done something ‘wrong’ even if he hadn’t.
Why was the court order left so late? Did Dorrian screw up or perhaps she was ‘relished’ Alex Salmond’s complainers being identified.
Did Doleman save her bacon?
Doleman is a very good boy! 🙂
Could someone tell me if the anonymity granted remains in place
in perpetuity ?
Is that possible or even fair?
Man found not guilty by a jury but accusers allowed to keep bleating and remain anonymous for ever – unless someone cracks bothered by their conscience and blurts out the truth.
Or someone else decides time is up and ………
Dan says:
30 July, 2021 at 5:01 pm
Ruby says: at 2:00 pm
“What would Woman H’s plan have been?
link to archive.is
What Dan says.
“It’s Byline Times, not Byline News.”
Quite right, corrected.
“It’s regulated by Impress, not IPSO,”
I didn’t say it was regulated by IPSO. I said it wasn’t.
“I accidentally named a complainer, in a different context, then immediately deleted it.”
Intent is irrelevant in law, as is deleting things afterwards. Deleting his tweets didn’t save Clive Thomson.
“There was no court order in place at the time, so no contempt”
The article accused you of a “breach”, not of contempt.
One out of four, well done. Now piss off.
Because I made a mistake
“Could someone tell me if the anonymity granted remains in place
in perpetuity ?”
Yes, it does.
It seems to me that the anonymity of the Alphabeties is a big part of the problem. Could someone in a UK country outside of Scotland name them without danger of prosecution? Could someone in another country, say Canada or the USA name them without danger of prosecution?
Let us not forget, the sentencing was delayed until AFTER the most recent Scottish elections. The whole thing is rotten to the core.
And if we are talking jigsaw identification, with, by logical extension, many different pieces (and authors), WHY is it is just Craig who has been prosecuted so vociferously? Oh, I know, he supported Salmond and Assange, all the others didn’t.
Blatant political persecution right here, today in Scotland, under Nicola Sturgeon’s corrupt lying, scheming ‘government‘. The SNP and Sturgeon especially, are finished. She, and her corrupt coven, need to be mocked, every time they speak.
Just watch as London’s stooges in Scotland come out with nonsense ‘comment’ pieces and ‘editorials’ in the English-controlled ‘scottishy’ media tomorrow, trying to justify the rank corruption. Just watch. It will be very informative indeed, to see who does.
James Doleman says:
30 July, 2021 at 5:22 pm
Because I made a mistake
Reply
If there was no court order in place then what mistake did you make?
Anything to do with Woman H’s plan?
Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
30 July, 2021 at 5:24 pm
“Could someone tell me if the anonymity granted remains in place
in perpetuity ?”
Yes, it does.
Reply
Just in Scotland?
Open your eyes and face the harsh reality…
Rule of Law/justice system is essentially dead.
How can a rotten Banana Scotland restore itself, particularly when our spineless parliamentarians are virtually silent over such vital issues.
What can a just Scotland count on.
.
James Doleman says:
30 July, 2021 at 4:16 pm
Another fact free piece.
It’s Byline Times, not Byline News. It’s regulated by Impress, not IPSO,
I accidentally named a complainer, in a different context, then immediately deleted it. Owned up to the court and apologised. There was no court order in place at the time, so no contempt, and I wasn’t excluded from proceedings.
Other than that spot on as always Mr Campbell.</b)
Just a point Mr Doleman
Is it strange that Mr Campbell can copy and paste from two different sources about the very mistake that you have accused him of?
The quotes above are taken from Lady Dorrian’s judgement of 25 March this year. Others have already highlighted the deeply disturbing notion laid out in them that online journalists should be subjected to different interpretations of the law than those applied to newspaper journalists, on the comically absurd grounds that the latter are accountable to the “IPSO Editors’ Code Of Practice”
PLUS a cut and paste job from Byleline which also uses that same acronym
The fact that you ‘owned up’ says much because at that point you had done nothing of significance – not an unusual occurrence in your case I would imagine.
Corruption of values is arguably the worst form of corruption.
(This is despite the fact that Byline News is not subject to IPSO adjudication and indeed calls the organisation a “sham regulator”, and therefore by Lady Dorrian’s own ruling she should have treated Doleman more harshly than “proper” journalists.)
Truth slips in and out in the same way words slip and slide.
The world is so ironical
James Doleman says:
30 July, 2021 at 4:16 pm
‘Another fact free piece’.
Do you mean the bits about you?
Even though I find him verbose and vainglorious, and don’t like how he is revelling in political martyrdom, I have just posted a piece titled JE SUIS MURRAY!
link to jaggy.blog
Jigsaw identification could be used to connect any person to any crime. Any person. No matter how powerful and seemingly untouchable they are now.
As-Stuart – Dear God, I hope Craig Murray will be safe. As you say, to send a vulnerable man to jail with the delta variant rampaging is tantamount to a death sentence for having committed NO CRIME.
Politics is a cruel sport!
I think you are being very generous with this judge, Stu.
Personally, at this point and without more information, I cannot bring myself to discard so quickly the notion that this judge has allowed herself to be corrupted, just like the previous Lord Advocate. Who has corrupted them I have no clue. But, from where I am standing, what seems clear is that they are thrown to the middle of this affair by very long tentacles. Mr Murray’s sentence looks like the vortex of a massive collusion of toxic interests between westminster and Sturgeon’s (mis)government.
Because the only alternative to corruption I can see to explain the woeful, ridiculous at times, performance of this judge is that she is beyond incompetent, has absolutely no sense of impartiality, proportion or justice, and cannot be arsed in re-reading what she wrote to ensure it makes sense, it will not backfire on her own credibility and it will not run the risk of not aging well – the embarrassingly cringeworthy nonsense about the difference between dead tree reporters and bloggers certainly will not age well.
Considering that this judge is the second most senior judge in Scotland and aspiring to soon become first, frankly I am not sure at this point what gives me less confidence in the (in)justice system in Scotland system, if her being corrupt or her being spectacularly incompetent, so shortsighted that cannot see that the dead tree press is in its last legs, untrustworthy and happy to be used as a political tool.
How can I even wonder if she is incompetent if I am not even a lawyer myself?
Well, you don’t need to enjoy an intelligence above average to realise what Mr Salmond’s criminal case has done to women. By giving life-long anonymity to accusers, some of them potential perjurers, and by haemorrhaging taxpayers’ money in a criminal case based in incredibly flimsy charges, all those “justice” representatives have totally ridiculised the matter of sexual harassment against women, lowering the importance of something as serious as rape or attempted rape to the same level as the discomfort experienced by someone who has a lock of hair pinged or their knee accidentally touched.
To be absolutely clear, I am not implying here at all that Mr Salmond committed attempted or indeed rape. What I am trying to say is that when somebody tells you that they experienced sexual harassment and are bringing criminal charges against someone, serious sexual assault like attempted rape or rape are the first things that come to your head. Certainly nobody in her senses would deliberately put themselves through the enormous stress of a criminal case on the mere stupidity of having their hair lock pinged or being accidentally touched on a knee or elbow.
In an environment where the meaning of the word woman is being deliberately deconstructed and undermined for the sake of satisfying the fantasies of a minority of males at the expense of women’s safety, I have wondered more than once since that criminal case started, if one of the objectives of such a ridiculous case would not had been to actually remove importance from the cases of serious sexual assault against women, to stop them bringing cases forward in preparation for the potential exponential increase in such events when women and girls’ safe spaces are ripped open to that minority of self-indulgent males, particularly in prisons.
As a woman who suffered sexual harassment in the past, I cannot describe how insulted and disgusted I felt when I realised that taxpayers like me were forced by a corrupt prosecution to indulge the self importance of a few liars and foot the bill for a criminal case where accusers and prosecution dared to trivialise a serious matter by the spectacular stupidity of bringing an accusation of pinging a lock of hair to a criminal court.
As a woman I will never forgive the accusers, the prosecution nor the judge for making us women look like poisoning, vindictive snakes. I cannot forgive them either for giving liars a platform at our expense to destroy the life a man they dislike just because the “(in)justice” system in Scotland now gives that type of unprincipled women a free ride of anonymity so they can use it to finish off the reputation of their victim if their plan does not pan out as they hoped in court. I cannot forgive them for totally destroying the credibility of the Scottish courts as places where one goes to get justice, not where liars are protected and helped to deny a victim justice.
Just in case the anonymity does not work either, if I understood correctly, now this judge is helping Sturgeon to get rid of the juries, to make it a little bit easier for unscrupulous harpies to totally destroy the lives of innocent men who they don’t like or see as an obstacle for their personal career or otherwise ambitions. It has to be said, the sense of justice and equality of this judge really is out of tune by a mile.
But there is another matter. You don’t need to be Einstein to realise that in this judge’s desperate quest to help hiding the identity of those perjurers, she may have actually helped to expose some of them.
The first time I read Mr Murray’s article that led to this ridiculous and completely blown out of proportion sentence, I did not have a clue who any of the people mentioned in the satire were, apart from the FM. Not a clue. I do not move in political circles at all therefore the aliases in the article mean absolutely nothing to me.
The thing is the article did not motivate me to research either to find out who these people were. I read the article, thought it was funny and creative and that was that. End of the story.
But later on, along came the main stream articles in the press, that openly named some individuals associating them to certain facts and then, once Lady Dorian’s badly thought out anonymity enforcement kicked in, the papers proceded to rewrite or paraphrase old articles omitting the names but not the facts and, bizarrely, adding in some instances the expression “one of the accusers”.
In other words, they did not offer just one puzzle piece, they handed over the entire puzzle.
It was clear to me that the only possible way you could identify anybody from Murray’s satire is if you already knew who those people were. If Lady Dorian identified that satire as contempt, in my opinion it could only have been because she knew the identities of the individuals before hand. That is also a source of enormous bias in itself and reduces confidence on her judgement.
Having a judge directly and openly identifying that satire as contempt of court is like directing a huge football stadium floodlight to it, giving it credibility. This could potentially have encouraged readers to look for the satire, read it and then attempt to research to investigate who those names were, now that a senior judge had confirmed the satire contained reliable clues.
Or bringing this satire to the public’s attention was not this judge’s most competent move or protecting the identity of the accusers was never this judge’s and the prosecution team’s motivation in the first place. That is obvious.
It is astonishingly self-indulgent and ranks at hypocrisy to punish Mr Murray on the basis of facilitating jigsaw identification when those who are holding the strongest light torch towards the article were the COPfS themselves, the Lord Advocate and the judge. The message this judge and the copfs sent with such ruling is “do as we say, not as we do” and hardly inspires confidence in their ability and even less in their integrity or trustworthiness.
But this is not the only instance of incompetence/corruption (choose your preferred option). As mentioned above, the anonymity came into force AFTER mainstream media had ALREADY published some of the names. When the anonymity came into force, reporters often regurgitated the same information they had published months ago and simply removed the names of the individuals in question, but then proceeded to add in some instances “one of the accusers”.
In addition, the COPFS, using the ruling of this Judge on anonymity as an excuse, proceeded to demand the removal of entire chunks of text from articles that included some of the names in question. These were articles that HAD ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED and HAD ALREADY BEEN READ a few days before. The same happened with the information submitted by Mr Salmond to the Fabiani Farce. I mean, such move was not offering one piece of the “jigsaw puzzle”, excuse they are using today to send Mr Murray for 8 months to prison, it was revealing the whole puzzle to the public.
The idea that once a member of the public has read something they immediately forget is at best incompetence, at worse negligence. I don’t think the motivation here was either of the two, but rather the urgency of denying the Fabiani Farce the possibility of using it for its final report or to subject Sturgeon to a jolly good questioning.
It is crystal clear to me that the motivation behind sending Mr Murray to prison has never been to curb jigsaw identification. Because if it was, the lord advocate, the copfs and lady dorrian herself should be subjecting themselves to prosecution and sent themselves for 8 months to jail for the very same reason they are sending today Mr Murray to prison, and should be subjecting to all those other reporters that published the clues to contempt of court too.
The fact that only Mr Murray has been prosecuted for this, the fact that he has been given a sentence for NOT naming the accusers even longer than that of the man that actually named them in social media, and the fact that this judge used the unprecedented, pathetic excuse of claiming that the reporters that write in established newspapers, actually the ones that first released the names and direct clues, deserve a more relaxed approach to law than bloggers as a justification for her farcical ruling, tells me that this judge, the entire CoPFS, the Scottish courts, the supreme court, the SGovernment, the former Lord Advocate and the justice system in Scotland are corrupt to the very core and therefore devoid of any meaning. The representatives of the (in)justice system in Scotland have now become cheap tools of the deep state, part of a conveyor belt that serves as its main purpose the sending inconvenient politica dissidents to prison on demand. The excuse used to do so is the least of their worries. It seems anything goes.
The jigsaw identification may be the excuse written in paper, but Mr Murray is clearly being sent to prison for other reason.
The tacky excuses given by this judge to justify sending Mr Murray to prison tell me that we don’t longer have a justice system in Scotland that is independent from England. Being a senior judge now means nothing in terms of likelihood of getting justice.
What we appear to have here passing for prosecution and judges are lapdogs of the British establishment so devoid of integrity and principles that run to oblige and send to prison all those individuals who have the potential to either embarrass the British state or that are about to expose just how much in the pocket of the British state Sturgeon’s government and the SNP are.
It makes you wonder even more what on earth it is in those whatsapp messages that is so deeply embarrassing for the British state that left the pretence aside and exposed the deep corruption and lack of integrity of the COPFS, lord advocate and judges in all its glory for the sake of supressing that evidence, protecting Murrell’s, some perjurers’ and other individual/s within the so called vietnam group’s arse.
What we got here is a collusion between the Sturgeon’s SNP, Sturgeon’s gov and the British state of gargantuan proportions. Such is the destructive energy of this collusion that the Justice System in Scotland together with any pretence of impartiality from the COPFS and Scotland’s judges, any pretence of autonomy of the Scottish parliament and any pretence of autonomy and appetite for independence of Sturgeon’s tetraplegic SNP have been sacrificed on the altar of the insatiable greed of the English ruling elite for control of Scotland’s assets.
RIP SNP
I was at Holyrood today with wee Annie Jenkins & Sussane Henderson Craig’s handing in date is on Sunday he is in good spirits & gave a very good speech re the British gov were after him for the past 18 years but have now got him with help of Scottish Gov . He had a lot of support & will continue to get that support . Dave Llewellyn’s has posted video’s on his F/B page .
Could the reson for separating bloggers from MSM was to divide and stop press and media attacking this injustice
.
Rob Jaggy Brown,
You may have a point. But your timing is off and your words about a man on the day of his imprisonment that will likely be read by his family under-scored by your own self-promotion on this high-volume readership Wings Over Scotland website (with your click-greedy self-absorbed link) strike a BUM NOTE.
I took Craig Murray’s words about HM Queen providing him with bed and breakfast as stoic gallows humour. Your bum-note article hits the skids with your nasty little fig leaf piece on that.
Rob, I would have thought YOU as a blogger in harm’s way from the current rogue First Minister’s corrupt outfit would have some empathy with the pressures under which Craig Murray has been placed?
Instead, to boost your own personal blog numbers, you scribble a few back handed compliments and then cynically go in for the kill. To promote your self-indulgent “work” you advertise a click-link on Wings Over Scotland. Rob, you and your ilk make me feel like vomiting.
Maybe those who read your blog should cut you a break? I have my suspicions that your byline about being: “A sober man looks at a Thistle” to fall within the “he protesteth too much” camp.
Were you pished when you wrote your viputerative bile?
I think that’s a very harsh assessment of Rob’s piece.
“Could the reason for separating bloggers from MSM was to divide and stop press and media attacking this injustice?”
I don’t think there is any hope of that from the Scottish press, Mike. They were cowed long ago and any criticism of Holyrood will draw an unreasonably angry response from them.
The Daily Mail ran the story about the banana republic ages ago, but that was by Andrew Neil as I suspect none of their journalists had the gumption to do it.
For me, our best hope is the Sunday Times. They ran the story a week ago about the cost of the SNP office refurb. They are run by an investigative journalist nowadays and I think that now might be a good time to run a story.
For what it’s worth, that’s what I reckon. Stuart Campbell can put it all together for them and he often does, but it really needs to get into the Sunday papers to do any lasting damage.
link to facebook.com
Jaggy
I thought your article was balanced and fair.
Al-Stuart
Craig Murray is in prison. The priority is to publicise this fact as widely as possible. The MSM may well collude in keeping it quiet. The masses of rank and file SNP voters need to know what is being done in their name.
Whether or not you agree with the tone of an article about Craig Murray, the key fact to remember is that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
If Jaggy had written something that was 100% derogatory and critical of Craig Murray, you would have had a point. But he didn’t. So you called it wrong.
@ Captain Yossa
Ooh, on mention of the Sunday press… Might this story be in The Sunday Times, or possibly more appropriately, The Sunday Sport!
link to twitter.com
Great article Rev but I do think you give too much credit to Lady Diplock.
She’s a rotten part of the Scottish police, prosecution and judiciary. Of that there is no doubt and no eloquent analysis can change that.
The Americans introduced the Second amendment because of the concern about a state, or an establishment turning rouge against the people. Our state has turned rogue against the people. Time we simplied this a bit. You fuck me and I fuck you. Jungle politics, jungle democracy.
And it’ll be coming for aw that and aw that. Make no mistake, you only control by force for so long. Lady Diplock should know that. Lady Diplock thinks she has the power, the police think they have the power as do the prosecution. Truth is they don’t. Far from it in fact.
We give a corrupt legal system more respect than it deserves. We should recognise it for what it is.
Dan – Another old story from the Daily Mail reported on there being more complaints of bullying from Scotgov Ministers than there were from the governments of Westminster, Stormont and Cardiff put together. I remember hardly being able to believe that at the time, but we have no problem in believing it now.
I suspect that the reason the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal was due principally to the fact that it’s likely that the good Lady Dorrian will be joining that bench in due course.
They could potentially have heard it despite Dorrians earlier refusal to allow an appeal on the grounds of “ general public importance”- you may ask if jailing a journalist on the grounds/reasons & procedures used in this case is not of “ general public importance” – then what is?
You have to understand the ‘respect’ judges have for each other.
The public still largely think that they’re selected by some judicial body- a tap on the shoulder cos they’re really good lawyers-not so generally they put themselves forward- nice pay/ great pension/ easy hours- and if your career at the bar ain’t too hot then off to the bench you go!
It’s an old judicial device that Dorrian used in her judgement- if you can call it that.
Stuart Campbell has ably pointed out the absurdity of a “ one piece jigsaw”-there is no evidence to found her judgement on – it’s her opinion- her world view.
I have little doubt that had a jury been involved then the appeal would have been heard- but given it was all about the good lady- she knew full well that her judicial colleagues couldn’t / wouldn’t call out her nonsense- particularly when another couple of ‘ red jerseys’ – wee Boo included were wheeled out to back up their boss.
It’s also correct to suggest that politics was involved but I think it was more to do with the potential political capital it would give the SNP if a London based Court kicked out a three bench Scottish High Court decision- I wonder what Blackford would have
made of it? Justice for Craig or outrage- you know the answer.
I’ve appeared in front of Lady Dorrian a few times and I would not disagree with Mr Campbells analysis- although you should consider further who ultimately appoints the judicial crew.
Lastly, stop calling for Judicial Reviews / Inquiries etc- can you now see who the judges are and who they serve?
MIA
I suggested to Craig today to do his own version of the identity jigsaw Puzzle re those member’s of the Scottish legal system & SG . it would be a Christmas seller LoL
Can you be convicted twice for this ‘crime’. Can Craig spend the next 8 months expanding and identifying everyone and everything?
The internet is DETESTED by the establishment everywhere because it gives people power that they never had before. They’re unable to accept what is developing before their very eyes and they’re unable to accept that they can’t do anything about it.
The reason there’s this divide between MSM ‘journalism’ and journalists online despite the fact that the latter tend to be far better at their trade than the others, is that to the establishment, ‘blogging’ is what teenagers do in their bedroom when not looking at porn and playing games. That’s their view of the internet.
The term ‘blogger’ or ‘blogging’ is being used in a derogatory sense to try and deny these journalists any credibility. This is why Lady Dorrian amongst others, made the distinction between MSM and blogging. It’s beyond their traditional ‘ken’ that serious online journalism is replacing the junk that’s churned out by the MSM.
It’ll only take one major breakthrough to change that perception though. Their days are numbered.
Mist001 says:
30 July, 2021 at 8:55 pm
The internet is DETESTED by the establishment everywhere because it gives people power that they never had before. They’re unable to accept what is developing before their very eyes and they’re unable to accept that they can’t do anything about it.
—
A sensible post from you for a change. Merci.
Wings
Perhaps some articles prove just how many people are capable of making a jigsaw connection:-)
On the release of ‘The Master of Ballantrae’ RLS and Henry James were bewailing (in correspondence) the fact that people don’t read. So much of what Scotland has lost is due to that very fact – and it seems ironic from a nation that prides itself on its educational standards.
Saw ‘Viz’ magazine on the top shelf in Asda today. Almost £4! Long time since I’ve read it.
If memory serves, it had two characters who appeared as themselves. Noddy Holder, and Shaky Stevens.
If they had a writer with some inside knowledge they could easily make a great strip called The Murrells. All sorts of x-rated nonsense, with a strong supporting cast of belters and throbbers.
“I could’ve sworn you were a lady!”
“I *am* a lady!”
“Well, what’s this then?”
“It’s the Lord Advocate!”
This wiki entry about Viz is a good laugh in itself.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Ian Brotherhood says:
30 July, 2021 at 9:11 pm
Saw ‘Viz’ magazine on the top shelf in Asda today. Almost £4! Long time since I’ve read it.
—
Viz isn’t as cheap as it used to be. Do I win £5?
@Scott –
No, but it’s definitely Letter of The Week.
😉
The issue we have is that the real instigators of these injustices lurk in the shadows. We will never know them. They have no names, no public names we can associate with. The public figures are just pawns.
@Scott –
Ah, sorry, I didn’t realise you were deploying actual Viz jokes. Told you it’s been a long time!
Anyway, I just finished reading the wiki entry and have ended up with a sore gut from laughing at this wee bit here –
Am I right in thinking that the order put in place by Lady Dorian only has validity in Scotland. Maybe it could extended to the English legal system but in Europe Oz, Nz, Canada , USA even Iceland it is perfectly legal to do so, even over the internet?
Scotland having a separate legal system to England is often touted as a big advantage if / when we chose to go independent.
Or even as fundamental evidence we are intrinsically a separate country.
Yet quite honestly and in full respect to Gordon Dangerfield and so many other really impressive Scottish legal professionals I have virtually and otherwise met…
You guys suck.
If Scotland was independent tomorrow I’d happily see you burned to the ground and we start again.
Lady Dorrian is just like the alphabetties, nothing but a wh*re who sees only her own self-centred wants. She is a disgrace to women, and a disgrace to the legal profession and a disgrace to Scotland! May she rot in hell with Carloway, Wolfe, Sturgeon, Swinney and the others who have soiled and destroyed their own country for their own personal gain.
@AndrewR, 2.53
Something has gone very wrong at the Guardian.
“The Guardian had gone in six short years from being the natural outlet to place stories exposing wrongdoing by the security state to a platform trusted by the security state to amplify its information operations. A once relatively independent media platform has been largely neutralised by UK security services fearful of being exposed further. “
see link to dailymaverick.co.za
Mia @ 7:15 pm
“I think you are being very generous with this judge, Stu.”
He sure is. I may be wrong but methinks Stu has yet to fully appreciate Scotland’s colonial status, and with that, our colonial justice system.
BuggerlePanda, I am not so sure. Did someone not go to jail for posting names on Twitter whilst he was on holiday in Spain? If so, that is not encouraging to those of us resident abroad who might be inclined to name names or, in my case, name. (OK, maybe I can take educated guesses at two others.)
The MSM are again dancing to the choosen people’s tune how come the world’s media are pushing this unwarranted attack on a tanker probably leased by one of the country’s billionaire’s Oh I forgot the chosen people own the media .that’s why we get a one sided manufactured piece that will probably end in a missile strike very shortly in the name of self defense .
This small middle eastern country who seem to direct the foreign policy of the biggest problem on the planet namely the USA a giant in the hands of gangsters .
FFS the trouble both these countries have start all over the world and caused more death and grief than all the dictators that have ever lived and they are our best pals what does that say about us .
Jackanory@8.18
Promoting Daily Heil, Brillo and The Sunday Times, in one boring post, sums you up nicely.
You recommended Gordon Dangerfield, have a wee look at The Good Law Project, their doing some really good work highlighting the state of the WM Government.
The End.
Craig Murray knew the identity of all the accusers right at the beginning, and also their high positions.
He also knew that the accusations were false with the aim of preventing Alex Salmond making a political comeback.
It was the biggest mistake of his life not to name the whole lot of them straight away.
With all his experience, he should have known that his actions would have led to the outing and jailing of the corrupt lying criminals ruling Scotland.
I hope lessons will have been learned and in future any self respecting journalist immediately names any accuser with any connection to the Scottish government, parliament, prosecution service, police or the justice system.
.
Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
30 July, 2021 at 8:08 pm
I think that’s a very harsh assessment of Rob’s piece.
——————————-
.
Fair enough Rev.
On the day Craig Murray was dreading, and on the very day of at least four months when the man Rob calls “insufferable” cannot answer back, I was just very dissapointed at the tenor and construct of how, why and what Rob wrote.
Will read it again when am not so raw.
Let’s face it, we are all raw today.
Rev., on some reflection, partly because I’d enjoyed Rob’s output thus far, I think what has happened in the BROADER picture is several thousand very intelligent people at Cheltenham et al., had the best of the best picked out on 19th September 2014 and given the brief in respect of IndyRef1…
Prime Minister David Cameron just got an Olympic squeaky bum… “DON’T EVER, EVER LET THE SCOTS GET THAT CLOSE AGAIN”.
We are a nation with the clan system in our DNA. It is in our nature to fight. They have used that nature against us.
If you study what the real intelligent services have done with their time since 18th September 2014, probably since 17th May 2007 when the first (real) SNP government got into power, led by First Minister Alex Salmond, they have played a masterful game.
INDISPUTABLE FACT: The whole Independence movement is now DISUNITED in a way none of us could have imagined back in 2014.
We are in a permanent state of snapping at each other like turtles.
The country IS being governed as if it were a third rate banana republic.
The ONLY statesman (or woman) I have seen have been Johanna Cherry when she headed the legal action against Boris Johnson and won. Legally extinguishing the unlawful prorogation of the UK parliament.
The main statesman-like evidence as given by Alex Salmond at the Fabiani disgrace is when Alex focussed, with grace, precision and forensic accuracy on THE problem.
The HEADS of (i) the Scottish Civil Service, (I) the Scottish Government and (iii) the Crown Office & Procurators’ Fiscal Service were/are all dysfunctional and beyond salvation.
The ONLY way we will get out of being bested by one of the finest (and dirty playing) security services in the world is to have those three pillars of Scottish civic society removed and a full, independent inquiry held. Likely at the UN. Westminster will never let Scotland go. They will jail innocent people. They are on the verge of sending an innocent man to his death.
Stuart, THAT is why I am so prickly about Rob. I know he was trying to juxtapose two unique positions and reconcile that dissonance with his “I Am Craig” Charlie Hebdo thing.
But I have lost two close friends to Covid. It is a Russian Roulette of a virus. Lady Dorrian knows this, yet still she showed NO mercy for Craig Murray. No “suspended sentence”. Craig will be silenced and if he needs to conveniently die of Covid D or Covid E then c’est la vie, c’est la guerre.
The British State, and to her credit, Lady Dorrian played a blinder with Alex Salmond. Ruined his life and damaged him very badly. “Beaten but not killed” as the backroom boys and girls say.
But Leeona Dorrian has put herself in professional harm’s way. Having served as junior counsel at the HSE she has NO excuse and NO credible defence if Craig Murray is taken ill because of her actions. The HSE under her counsellorship had an roll in the white paper that would eventually become the 1997 version of this…
link to hse.gov.uk
If Craig Murray contracts Covid and dies…
Then what happens?
Maybe this is worth a read… RE: Ms Cherry…
link to tinyurl.com
.
Brian Doonthetoon,
Thanks for the link.
It looks like Joanna Cherry maybe hoisting the Scottish Executive by their own GRA petard.
Karma at last.
———
Meanwhile, has anyone seen any conflict in sentencing guidelines?
Those who read this thread and witnessed the second most senior learned mind in Scotland’s legal profession send a person with underlying health issues to HMP Covid for 8 months for “possibly” identifying a perjurer on unsafe grounds…
Whilst…
A violent sex offender has been given a suspended sentence…
link to thenational.scot
But no matter, it’s only Joanna Cherry. Nicola Sturgeon’s fellow cabinet members around the Scottish Executive cabinet table who also double up as head of the COPFS are becoming well reputed in distilling who they think should get jail time (ignoring sentencing guidelines) and who should get a few hours in the open (free from Covid) fresh air, picking up litter as their community service for THREATENING to actually RAPE a woman.
———–
The moral of this entire thead?
Nobody, but nobody is above the law.
If anyone brings the Scottish Legal System into disrepute, then they should be reported for infracting the rules and relevant laws. Even if that includes recently retired law officers or perish the thought, current serving law officers.
Brian Doonthetoon
Thanks for posting Ms. Cherry’s statement – a quite extraordinary comment on recent events.
Whilst normal human decency would compel others perhaps to question their behaviour and in the spirit of conciliation extend a hand of friendship towards Ms. Cherry, apologising for any failure to condemn this harrassment and victimisation, I am astonished to read the reply from the SNP to this statement:
Following Ms Cherry’s statement, the SNP said the ruling was “a welcome conviction for totally unacceptable behaviour”.
A party spokesperson added: “We fully recognise the personal impact that comes from such abusive behaviour, and support services are available to all elected representatives and staff.
“Joanna was offered support from senior levels of the SNP at the time and that offer remains open. We hope that the conclusion of this case will bring her some relief.”
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
.
Meg Merrilees,
What an exquisitely placed QUOTE in your penultimate two lines…
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us.
Thankyou Meg.
For anyone who has yet to read the gathering storm that may hold within it the seeds to the end of the rogue First Minister’s dictatorship, including for the learned edification of the person pictured at the top of this post, I submit…
The Law of Unintended Consequences M’Lady…
link to bbc.co.uk
.
Boris having a go at jigsaw identification…
link to m.youtube.com
“Promoting Daily Heil, Brillo and The Sunday Times, in one boring post, sums you up nicely.”
I think it’s fair to say that each predicted the current events before any of us. Whether you like them or not, that’s the job of the press, isn’t it? I was making the point that the only papers employing INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS at the moment, likely to devote attention to this, are these ones.
Brillo paid for the Court of Session hearing with Lady Dorrian. Remember that?
I’ve just read Joanna Cherry’s statement about her abuse again, and you what I think is the saddest thing about it? That we have one of the most robust and effective thinkers with an intricate knowledge of the law serving as a prestigious asset to the YES cause, setting aside her lucrative professional career to further the interests of Scottish Independence.
She has proven her professional expertise, not once, but twice humbling the UK Establishment and dragging it by the nose to respect Scots Law. Yet rather than being the sharpest spear point of the entire YES movement, Joanna Cherry is being treated disgracefully by lowlife vermin acting like a pack of jackals to intimidate her, make her afraid and offended, and compelled to defend herself from vicious, nasty personal attack from our own fucking side, and yet instead of support from the SNP she is ostracised as “not a team player” and left to deal with her abusers by herself.
Clearly, being a “team player” in the SNP means running with that pack of cowardly giggling jackals as they set themselves upon some other innocent target and make their life a misery.
Get out of there, and get yourself over to ALBA Joanna. There is nothing left of the SNP to salvage. The carrot dangler and her carrot flies have destroyed the crop and poisoned the soil. Scotland needs you to be with ALBA, ploughing fresh pasture beside the genuine troopers of the Scottish Independence cause. We have the fallacies of the United Kingdom “Constitution” to demolish, and Scotland’s sovereign Constitution to resurrect, and we need people of your calibre to bring it home.
And people of Scotland, both YES voters and NO voters, take the time to appreciate what Joanna Cherry did with Scots Law, for Scots Law. She humbled the UK shambling wreck of a Prime Minister, and against their will, she used Scots Law to secure a Brexit lifeline which could have averted the catastrophe of Brexit.
Compare and contrast what Joanna did for the prestige and reputation of Scotland and Scots Law, the escape routes, options, and room to manoeuvre she made available for Scotland, with what Sturgeon, Wolffe and Dorian have managed to achieve, reducing Scotland’s status to the point people are comparing it to a Roland Friesler type farce and Scotland shamed by its lonely political prisoner.
You might want to reflect on that a while, at the Faculty of Advocates, when selecting the Lord President of the Court of Session.
@Mist
The internet isnt just a problem for the establishment. You are right that it has given us a means of decentralised communication and information sharing (with all the warts that come with that) but the effects of the internet can also be seen on society.
We are splitting down the middle, right through families, groups of friends, communities and countries. Not on politics or religion but on the awareness that comes from taking that information tool and actually using it.
Those who do are on a different track than those who don’t, Especially those who rely on the MSM for anything. The gap is getting wider.
The MSM and establishment have done what Orwell warned already – they have taken truth and flipped it on its head. Inverted reality. On virtually everything.
Patriot journalists are ("Tractor" - Ed)s. Real doctors are quacks. Big pharma are out to save you 1st and put profits 2nd. Nationalists are bad, internationalists good.
The internet is also breaking the Orwellian situation of ‘he who controls the past controls the future, he who controls the present controls the past’.
This turning of reality back to its proper perspective is hard on many and a lot of people will never be able to handle it
“anyone knowing the names of complainers in a sexual-assault case should name them in public at the first available opportunity, loudly and repeatedly.”
Exactly what should have happened a decade ago, particularly if any complaint had had substance, so looks like the 3 judges (inadvertently or otherwise) got that part right too and Holyrood/ civil service HR can think again on how better to protect MSPs from their admirers and vice versa.
As far as the wider legislation is concerned, each case its own merit, but the default for people who think they might be victims of abuse should always be to be proud or relieved to have spoken out in order that the healing process can begin (eg the one terrified of having her knee squeezed must be in a right state now that assault was denied – especially her husband knows who she is and its him she’s really scared of) – not shamed into anonymity and encouraged, or in this case obliged, to hide it for eternity.
Capn Y
” I was making the point that the only papers employing INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS at the moment, likely to devote attention to this, are these ones.”
Really ? And are these so-called INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS applying their superior sleuthing skills to issues like the outrageously corrupt awarding of billions of £s worth of contracts to their pals – the Chumocracy , the distorting of reality re the * Pandemic * , the suppressed numbers of adverse reactions to the vaccine ?
No , they’re strangely quiet on these issues , but when it comes to anything that can damage Scotland and it’s Independence aspiration they are all over it .
Excellent posts in succession by Breeks and J.O.E above .
The mystery is why Joanna still clings to the wreckage of the SNP Breeks , and , absolutely , she would be a tremendous asset to ALBA .
J.O.E we see that growing division between those whose sole source of information is MSM and those who look wider – and deeper , writ large currently . In this instance ie the Pandemic with extremely grave consequences for everyone , the fragmentation of society
There’s a new SNP Complaints Officer.
link to twitter.com
Dan says:
31 July, 2021 at 9:05 am
There’s a new SNP Complaints Officer.
link to twitter.com
For the love o’ fuck.
Joanna, do it today. Join ALBA and give the whole of Scotland a reason to cheer.
Google Drive/Google Docs does an excellent job of transposing image to text. I uploaded the images of Joanna Cherry’s statement to Google Docs and the following is the result. I only spotted one little error which I left in.
“I am pleased that Grant Karte has finally been sentenced and that I am now free to comment on the full circumstances surrounding his conviction. Mr Karte sent me a number of menacing and obscene private messages including threats of sexual violence on the evening of 1st February 2021. Although | have become accustomed to social media abuse, the nature of these messages and the fact that they had been sent privately caused me considerable fear, upset and alarm and I informed the police immediately. I am grateful to the police for their assistance.
Earlier on the same day I had been sacked from the SNP Westminster frontbench after senior SNP politicians, members of the SNP NEC and staff employed by the party had wrongly accused me of transphobia, simply because I had spoken up to defend the rights of women and girls and the right to free speech.
These irresponsible accusations put a target on my back and given the toxicity of the current debate about gender identity and the harassment, abuse and death threats I had already received, it was wholly foreseeable that further abuse and threats might be elicited, as in fact happened.
At the time of his offence Mr Karte was a member of the SNP and an associate of a group of men, including current and former SNP members, with strong links to the Stirling area, who have repeatedly abused and harassed me and other female SNP members on social media. I believe that had steps been taken to address this behaviour it would not have escalated to the level of criminality.
I am very disappointed that no one in the SNP hierarchy has acknowledged or condemned Grant Karte’s threats towards me despite his criminal conviction. His name was removed from the roll of party members after his offence was publicised so I can only assume that his behaviour has been recognised as reprehensible, yet no one has said so publicly on behalf of the SNP and I have not received the same support as other women who have suffered abuse, often a good deal less serious and falling short of criminality.
In recent years we have heard many fine words about the importance of condemning abuse and taking women’s complaints of harassment seriously but ultimately actions speak louder than words. Defending the rights of women and girls, the rights of lesbians to be same sex attracted and the right to freedom of speech is not transphobic, and I will continue to do so despite the attempts to silence me.
As a membership organisation, the SNP is bound by the terms of the Equality Act not to discriminate against, harass or victimise its members by reason of any protected characteristic including sex, sexual orientation and belief. The recent Employment Appeal Tribunal judgement in the case of Forstater v CGD Europe has made it quite clear that my beliefs as a gender critical feminist are protected under the Act. I also share the protected characteristics of sex and sexual orientation.
I hope that, going forward, the party will be mindful of its duties under the Equality Act, that Mr Karte’s crime will be publicly condemned and that those who made wrongful accusations against me thus exacerbating the risk of abuse and threats will have the decency to withdraw those accusations and to apologise.
It is not too late for the SNP to tackle the harassment and abuse directed at me and other women from within the party. I hope that they will now take steps to do so and, in future, I would expect that I and any other women abused in this way will receive the same support from the leadership and party HQ as has been afforded to other party members.”
@ Breeks
As far as I can work out the SNP “vetting process” involves taking a candidate to a vet to get confirmation they are alive, and that seems the sole condition requiring to be met before being accepted.
Decent and capable folk can be hounded out a local Branch on the flimsiest of grounds by the small c conservative magnolia leadership following sheep. Yet there’s loads of mouthy fucks and idiots rising through the ranks.
There are so many individuals in the organisation that have behaved inappropriately yet are still currently in position seemingly without sanction.
With regard to elected politicians crossing the floor to Alba, you will recall there was mention of this prior to the Holyrood election, where it was understood quite a few SNP candidates might, but would stay in SNP for the time being due to the electoral system and limited campaigning time.
Makes you wonder what kind of event would be required for them to step up and initiate a move.
Indy support falling, implementation of unwanted policies, jailing journalists…
These fuckers @ SNP are defo trying to sabotage Indy movement at every opportunity. We need Alex Salmond and Alba more than ever.
Get over to Alba Joanna.
You wont spot the error in the above because a capital I
just looks the same as | the pipe here.
If you copy and past the above into notepad or something similar you will see the difference.
This is the sort of trick posters on the Scotsman & Herald did when they wanted to hack your user name.
|an Smith (using pipe key) looks the same as Ian Smith.
Dan says:
There are so many individuals in the organisation that have behaved inappropriately yet are still currently in position seemingly without sanction.
Reply
They are maybe ‘sitting on’ the complaints.
Could explain why SNP politicians are keeping quiet.
link to archive.is
@Robert Hughes – I don’t think there any other newspapers which did more to help Alex Salmond than the Daily Mail and The Spectator. The Times have a whistleblower who disclosed the whereabouts of the missing £600,000. That’s what I mean by investigative journalism.
As-Stuart – Dear God, I hope Craig Murray will be safe. As you say, to send a vulnerable man to jail with the delta variant rampaging is tantamount to a death sentence for having committed NO CRIME.
If Murray dies in prison, Scotland/U.K. had effectively passed down a death sentence for writing satire which – in the absence of the ability to tell the truth without being jailed – is the only way to hint at the truth. We’ve gone fully Soviet Stalin era, an oppression which was most keenly felt in the nations Russia kept chained in there. Jolly well done all involved. I’m sure your childhood selves will be most impressed at who and what you grew up to be.
“and compelled to defend herself from vicious, nasty personal attack from our own fucking side”
Ahhh, Breeks. But are they REALLY on our side or just pretending to be?
Is their aim to promote the most qualified members like Ms Cherry to positions where they can realise their full potential and land serious blows to the British state, or is their aim to actually block those best members from the positions where they could progress Scotland’s independence, exactly as Sturgeon’s minions did with Joanna Cherry blocking her from the front bench after she succeeded returning to parliament the power to withdraw from A50 and after she succeeded in blocking the prorogation of parliament concocted by Johnson and the monarch?
What kind of idiot removes from the front bench of Scotland’s vehicle for independence the most efficient MP and the only one that has the knowledge, acumen and expertise to land serious blows to the British state?
Is that really an idiot or is a rat batting for the opposite side?
What kind of idiot deliberately seeds division, disgusts members with the abuse of proceedings, lack of transparency and seemingly destruction of democratic structures and “encourages” the membership to leave on their droves, reducing drastically the funding risking the collapse the party?
Is that an incompetent narcissist idiot or is that just a rat working for the opposite side?
What kind of idiot deliberately destroys the best political vehicle Scotland has to get independence?
Is that just an incompetent narcissist idiot or is that a rat working against independence?
If something is clear is that none of those vacuous, seemingly misogynist individuals that they are being parachuted to positions of power by a political fraud determined to destroy Scotland’s political vehicle for independence and to derail the yes movement are on our side.
Sturgeon’s SNP is no longer the SNP. The SNP died on the 14 November 2014 and the SNP’s last leader was Alex Salmond.
The political aberration under Sturgeon’s control has become all practical effects a covert variant of New labour operating under a false flag with the aims of derailing independence while keeping yes voters on a leash.
During the last 6 years Sturgeon has demonstrated that her remit is not delivering independence. Her remit is derail it or delay it for as long as possible. When you look at the last 6 years from that perspective, EVERYTHING makes sense.
The woman is a political fraud, a tool of the British establishment. Joanna Cherry, the same as Angus McNeill and any other pro independence SNP MP or MSP are wasting their time (and ours) in Sturgeon’s political construct. If they really want independence they should cross the floor to ALBA. The minute ALBA gets representation in Holyrood watch the political fraud let her mask slip and start working with the unionist parties she helped to keep represented in Holyrood.
he minute ALBA gets representation in Holyrood watch the political fraud let her mask slip and start working with the unionist parties she helped to keep represented in Holyrood.
That’s the real reason we needed Alba MSPs, yet. Though how people didn’t see through the way she was working with the unionist media to smear and demonise those genuine independence supporters who’ve spent lifetimes fighting for indy, I have no idea.
Yossa@10.51
Unfortunately you missed out the word “Selective” in describing investigative journalism.
That’s why its now referred to as Churnalism.
If we had an honest media, Johnson and Co would be out on their erse’s along with the entire SG.
Did any of you also struggle to get to sleep last night thinking about Craig?
They select what they want to investigate. They investigated the whereabouts of the missing £600,000 (and not even WoS could do that) and they reported on it….what more do you want them to do?
Thanks to the Sunday Times, it has turned into a criminal investigation. There is only so much that WoS can do, the Sunday papers have to do the rest and one or two of them do that.
Exactly “Selective”.
David Leask not too happy at being called out.
link to twitter.com
I have to say, the thing that strikes me most about this whole messy gurgling abortion of a case, in all its variant aspects and angles, is how utterly rubbish it is, and how quickly it fell apart. It’s pure banana republic stuff, embarrassing to watch. You would have thought that political intrigue and scandal would have reached more giddy, vertiginous heights (or depths) of functionality by now. I cringe at it all.
I have talked to people online who regard Scotland as basically a PC Hell, and they are tragically correct. But this too shall pass. When our insane First Minister and her wee lassie and ladyboy swarmtrooper cabal go…it will be interesting to see who comes next. They have one helluva mess to clean up. If it’s even possible to do so anymore. Holyrood, the police, the judiciary…all compromised. We live in The Compromised Land. And life was never sadder.
Hahaha ! Who’s like you ?
Ah, merde – we – Oh la vache !
Merde encore ! I forgot the “are” !
Kel cornégidouille !
Yes, I agree, it is most intriguing. There is, almost, as if a certain hint ‘of the dog which did not bark’ about it ?
(Twists moustache, lifts eyebrow, falls off stool)
Sarlat La Canède says:
31 July, 2021 at 3:30 pm
There is, almost, as if a certain hint ‘of the dog which did not bark’ about it ?
—
Spot on. The learned member for Edinburgh South West is a very shrewd operator. Softly, softly, catchee monkey.
Maybe Cherry wants to be a future FM. Which would mean leading a party which did not stand behind her when she was being assailed by lunatics. Sturgeon said nothing either, and a great deal of schadenfreude flowed. Cherry may know something more about the party than I do, but surely, with a narrow-eyed view like that, you would not want to be anywhere near these people, unless you thought them easily malleable and you could easily bring them round to your point of view if you were FM, a volte-face from their current positions. It does seem as if they are strange, weak and feeble people, loving in-fighting, leaderless, rudderless, morality-free, sanity-lacking, boring-tweeting, indy-surrender-flag-waving. I am laughing here. What a fucking mess.
link to whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com
Can we please make the new N-word be…Nicola? Laughing.
.
John Main,
With due respect, who on earth appointed you the boss?
It may be your opinion I called it wrong.
Am I not allowed to express a view? In that case, who are you to peer-review the view of others in absolute terms?
I still believe that Rob struck a bum note.
I don’t condemn the core point he was trying to make and I am very well aware of how important publicity is.
John, please let me reframe this reply to assist.
Rev Stuart Campbell is regularly criticised. He has an armour-like way of utilising his detractors’ words brilliantly. For example on this site’s publicity blurb, Stuart self-deprecates as a “vile cybernat” and wears that epithet akin to a badge of honour. He uses the opposition words in self-deprecating humour. Many of us, especially the Weegies love Stuart for that style.
Add Stuart Campbell’s annoyingly brilliant prose with the fact that his forensic analysis and research should have attracted an Honourary Doctorate from Stirling University by now (the love Stuart in Stirling).
The sum total is a way of placing Stuart within a narrative whilst not calling him some of the spiteful things that the recent article from Paul Kavanagh clearly hurt Stuart to the point it brought a full article in response.
John, I genuinely hope you understand my reply on this.
An acid test on publicity value is that the words Stuart Campbell writes can be empirically totalled to over £1,000,000 in cash. For that is what Wings Over Scotland has raised in the words from a talented writer’s ability (in fact it is much more than a million pounds).
My problem with Jaggy Rob is he could and should have written his article in a less offensive and harmful way.
Especially as Rob SHOULD understand Craig Murray is in mental anguish and stressed to a very unhealthy degree. Rob slags the man off as an “insufferable martyr”. Yet anyone who knows Craig will appreciate his mannerisms in that respect are actually a defence and survival mechanism. Just as Stuart Campbell deploys enough expletives to beat Gordon Ramsay at the Sweary Word Olympics in Tokyo as part of his survival mechanism.
So John, I stand by the term: “to strike a bum note” as very apt on my own reading of Jaggy Rob’s article.
Many of us will have all heard a brilliant piece of music and occasionally we wince when the pianist hits the wrong note.
John Main, please understand that words matter. Your own arrogance telling me I called it wrong is an example. By all means disagree. But to arrogantly state I am absolutely wrong and by logic, you are totally right illustrates your inability to understand my point in respect to Jaggy Rob.
It is a concern that this reply may go over your head. Which is a shame as when Rev Stu., politely disagreed with my opinion, I said “fair enough” and expanded the core point with a rejoinder that the British Establishment have the entire YES movement at each others throats.
There is far too much nastiness. Mea Culpa in that too. I am not advocating we all join a monastery and become monks or emulate Mother Theresa.
But the toxicity of Scottish politics is so bad and so far removed from the positive case for YES authored by Alex Salmond in 2014, I believe many of us, and in this instance Jaggy Rob, could benefit from less ad hominem kicking a man when he is down. No matter how good the publicity his article might otherwise be.
In other words all of us need to up our game and do better than the interminable nastiness that passes for Scotland’s body politic and the ghost of a legal system.
WhoRattledYourCage says:
31 July, 2021 at 3:45 pm
Maybe Cherry wants to be a future FM….
I don’t actually know. Never met her, but I read Joanna Cherry as a true heavyweight who won’t be pushed around by feckless nobodies. She could take them all on, and win. She is of that calibre, (and laughably, so are they).
You might call it stubbornness or obduracy in a lesser person, but in JC, it’s indomitable tenacity.
But it all feels like another SNP ruse, deliberately playing the man not the ball, and trying to decommission Cherry to the point she’s no longer a main player in more important events. They are trying to take her down.
We don’t need this fight. She doesn’t need this fight. Far better she was out of this fractious SNP mess, away to ALBA, and using this sunny weather to burn holes in the Treaty of Union with a magnifying glass.
…. Incidentally, if 4 or 5 copies of this post suddenly appear, please excuse me. My internet seems possessed by demons today and it’s doing my nut in.
Al-Stuart@4.32
Nice one.
Although when I play a bum note, I call it Jazz.
‘I wish no harm to any human being, but I, as one man, am going to exercise my freedom of speech. No human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do everything that is for the benefit of mankind.’ John MacLean, speech from the dock, Edinburgh, May 1918
Craig Murray joins John MacLean,a Scottish patriot, whose courageous opposition to the First World War put him in the minority in the labour movement and in his own political party, the British Socialist Party, as a political prisoner. MacLean was sentenced to 5 years’ but released shortly after the Armistice. Hopefully public pressure will see Craig back with his family before the winter.
link to marxists.org
I do not trust a lawyer who cannot even PUT HER WIG ON STRAIGHT.
Great article rev.
As I have said before my earnest hope is that some day down the line Dorrian Sturgeon and the rest of her parasites will be held accountable for their despicable actions.
This extract from a Law Commission report might help you understand the issue of strict liability in contempt cases. Drives a coach and horses through the Rev Campbell’s argument………..:-
“The Contempt of Court Act 1981 provides the statutory basis for strict liability contempt, which holds that a person may be in contempt of court, regardless of intent, for conduct in relation to a publication which tends to interfere with the course of justice, where proceedings are active at the “time of publication”. The term “time of publication” is ambiguous – it can be interpreted either as meaning the “first time of publication” or publication can be understood as the whole period that the material is available for.
To protect the fairness of a trial, all seriously prejudicial information should be covered by the strict liability rule, meaning that material published before active proceedings but which is still available to the public should be included within the scope of the rule. However, to prevent too onerous a burden being placed on media organisations to monitor all their online content, two new clauses will provide a new defence for publishers or distributors.
This defence will be available where a publisher or distributor has made material available to the public before active proceedings, and the material remains available at a time when active proceedings commence. However, the defence will no longer be available to a publisher or distributor if the Attorney General notifies them of the existence of such material, which is considered to be so seriously prejudicial that it should be removed from the internet while proceedings are active. If the publisher or distributor doesn’t remove the material on receipt of such notification, it is likely that an application for an injunction for removal of the material will be made, and contempt proceedings brought against the publisher or distributor.”
The Independent Monitor for the Press (IMPRESS) is an independent press regulator in the UK. It was the first to be recognised by the Press Recognition Panel.[1] Unlike the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), IMPRESS is fully compliant with the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry. IMPRESS’s membership consists of a variety of independent local, investigative and special interest news publications across the UK. No national newspaper has signed up to the new regulator; most continue to be members of the unrecognised Independent Press Standards Organisation.[2] Its chief executive is Jonathan Heawood.[3]
Right or wrong. Who knows or cares?
Al-Stuart
“In other words all of us need to up our game and do better than the interminable nastiness”
In the ordinary way of things, I would reply that you’ve got that right, but then as you say, who appointed me boss?
TBH, most of your post did go over my head. Sorry. I have re-read your original post, the one that kicked it all off, and I don’t think my reply was unreasonable.
Anyways, the caravan has moved on and all I can see from here is a dispersing dust cloud on the horizon. 140 comments already on the next thread.
If I was tasked with monitoring here on behalf of the BritState security services, my report for this week would be short:
Nothing to worry about – they’ve already mostly forgotten about Craig Murray – a cartoon about the royal family has sent them running impotently in all directions, as per usual.
And so it goes.
Mr Menzies, while I am suitably intimidated by your keen and obvious erudition, I have to say, what is your point?
That none dare call it treason?
If so, well done. Now will you be on your way and leave the rest of us to defend the heart and soul of Scotland.
Thanks in advance.
Robert Menzies says:
1 August, 2021 at 12:40 am
This extract from a Law Commission report might help you understand the issue of strict liability in contempt cases. Drives a coach and horses through the Rev Campbell’s argument………..:-
Which part of Mr Campbell’s argument is this attacking?
Isn’t it strange that certain women were proven wrong in their allegations and in some cases were liars in their made up fantasy evidence against Alex Salmon yet the court insisted on a ban to advertise their names.
It puts LIBEL and DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER in Queer Street . How can you then sue these women for libel if you cannot name them?
The criminal high court of Scotland found no credible evidence in those women’s allegations and claims against mr Salmond and they swore an oath that they would tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yet they lied, ( is that in its self Contempt of Court ? ) turned up to court with next to nothing of any credible evidence that had even a modicum of belief and the court protects them meanwhile Alex is exonerated and gets attacked by all news desks along with the propaganda machine BBC etc…. is that fair is that Justice?
THESE WOMEN SHOULD BE NAMED AND SHAMED AND MOST DEFINITELY, PROSECUTED.
mr laing b. french says:
1 August, 2021 at 12:05 pm
mr french,
Honi soit qui mal y pense.
YOU might believe you have natural justice on your side. But if you go against the King then YOU are in the wrong (shamed).
Having a sovereign King inverts everything.
What is good for the King and bad for the people becomes the public interest.
Now YOU might think “THESE WOMEN SHOULD BE NAMED AND SHAMED AND MOST DEFINITELY, PROSECUTED.” But it is bad for Queen Elizabeth, for they are Her agents. And so it is against the public interest. So it will not happen.
@mr laing b french,
Witnesses testifying in court are not subject to the laws of libel and defamation. I believe it’s known in law as “absolute privilege”. Perjury is a criminal, not a civil matter and witnesses who are judged to be lying under oath ARE subject to criminal sanction. However, perjury is rarely prosecuted because it’s a difficult charge to prove. A witness can be honestly mistaken, or their interpretation of events, while wrong, are not necessarily malicious. At least that’s the theory.
Athanasius,
How can that be?
Commandment Nine:
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Athanasius says:
However, perjury is rarely prosecuted because it’s a difficult charge to prove.
There have been 37 appeals of cases where folk were found guilty of perjury in the past 20 years – that’s APPEALS
I don’t have a mind to search for how many haven’t bothered to appeal.
Given that at least one of the complainers was simply not believed by the jury and there seemed to be evidence to refute what was being said – I’d say that was perjury. Given the seriousness of the accusation and the ‘repercussions’ had the lies been believed – what do you think would be ‘fair justice’?
.
Dear John Main,
Thankyou for your courteous reply at 9.44pm. That is genuinely appreciated. Passions run high on Stuart Campbell’s blog and it is a positive feature that people care so much as to become passionate about serious matters.
Your report, were it to be regarding the British State that here there is: Nothing to worry about.” this week.
John, please might I ask you reconsider this view?
Never, in my life on this earth and at no time in my legal career have I witnessed MORE to worry about as I watch the beginning of the end: the risk of collapse of confidence in the Scottish legal system..
The Brirish State may not be worried. Though I know members of the British State. They are some of the best minds in the world and are very, very good at their jobs. Some WILL be worried as “the Belfasting of Scotland” is a phrase I hear more and more when the risk analysis is made at the levels of government which ensure our security.
A core problem that may seem tangential, but is central to informing how our Scotish institutions are being set up to fail is this:
In her woke captured state, Nicola Sturgeon and like-minded people are actually trying their best to remedy a horrendous wrong. That is the obscenely low conviction rate in rape and sexual assault trials.
The decision to remedy this, a profoundly wrong decision, HAS been made. That is to abolish jury trials.
It is the hallmark of the Sturgeon Scottish Executive, if you cannot win fairly then the current First Minister will cheat.
John, in the week where you see nothing to report, if I as a law officer with impeccably career credentials allege you have misconduct end yourself in terms of being a sex pest, you have had the MAJORITY of your rights removed and will end up going to prison. Maybe not at your first NON-JURY trial, but you will go to prison? Why? Because someone who might not be your biggest fan has decided to shut you up for 8 months. Literally, vocally and in every way you will be silenced. You will also be placed on the sex offender register.
For the avoidance of doubt, I have NO animus against you. The thought of the above paragraph sickens me. This analogy is the only way I see of getting folk to contemplate that something more profound, rotten and terrible has started to toxify the Scottish pillars of society. But the jig is up. The check-mate in Westminster’s plan to never, ever risk another IndyRef1 is to destroy public confidence in the Scottish institutions Alex Salmond identified as being at risk in his oral evidence to the Fabiani Inquiry.
Mr Main, this week your ONLY remaining protection has been dealt a fatal blow.
JOHN, IN STATUTORY SEXUAL OFFENCE MATTERS YOU WILL SOON BE DENIED THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL OF YOUR PEERS.
Do you feel more or less safe now that you know this?
For example, it means Alex Salmond would already be in jail had Nicola Sturgeon and Lady Dorrian got their jury-less plans through in time.
I find this an abominable assault on Human Rights and expect, at great expense, that these proposed jury-less trial laws will eventually be struck down. People will have died before that happens as justice moves slowly. Suicide in prison is horrendously high and HMP Covid is where you would be sent, so may your God help you if ever you misspeaks in ORWELIAN Scotland.
As for our initial contretemps. You take my rejoinder about you being the “boss” as nasty. I apologise for any offence caused. Your words were absolute in condemnation of my remarks about Jaggy Rob and I responded in a proportionate way to what you wrote and the tenor in which you wrote your words.
As for Jaggy Rob, he is capable of much better. I know Stuart Campbell and I disagree on the latest offering from Rob being satisfactory. Yes I was harsh. Stuart was correct. The Rev was remarkably polite to me given one of the things I enjoy about Stuart Campbell is his similarity to Gordon Ramsay and Simon Cowell in not suffering gladly, those whom they disagrees with.
My view is Jaggy Rob needs to do better. I am NOT condemning Rob. Quite the opposite. We all NEED Rob and brave bloggers of his ilk. He just got that one article off kilter on the day an Internet blogger with underlying health problems was imprisoned at HMP Covid and may die at the Russian Roulette of the current Covid pandemic.
An article that IS forensic in detail, frightening on the prophetic nature, and very well written considering the pressures on the author, can be studied here…
link to craigmurray.org.uk
Just as Stuart Campell has been courageous in placing even a mere photograph of Justice Leeona Dorrian on his website, Craig Murray is showing remarkable determination in protecting your freedom. John, would you not agree with that?
One last point for those not inclined to read Craig’s final article, the gathering storm surrounding the destruction of the Scottish Legal system.
The disgracefully low conviction rate for rapists and statutory sexual deviants DOES require to be remedied.
But NOT by cheating the system and placing badly written, UNSAFE Orwellian laws on to our statute books.
Good grief, the British State have made a genius job of destroying the Scottish Independence movement.
Seeding our embryonic Holyrood democracy with a Junta that will bring the entire independent Scottish institutions into disrepute for several generations is just that: genius. Nobody saw such an end-game coming this way.
Stuart Campbell got a whiff of it, but only now is it apparent how dangerous a country Scotland is becoming.
Craig Murray argues a very cogent case on how to improve rape convictions. It requires well written laws and significant investment in police and detective services. Not the gerrymandering and enactment of laws which are incompatible with EU or UN statutes on justice.
These laws and judgements are all driven by good intentions and, as we know, provided you pave it with good intentions, the road will always end up somewhere nice. So, let’s just hold off and see where the road ends before complaining.
@al-stuart,
“It is the hallmark of the Sturgeon Scottish Executive, if you cannot win fairly then the current First Minister will cheat”.
The implication is that this is a characteristic of Nicola Sturgeon. I would once have believed that too, but I was wrong. It’s not a question of one bad apple. The barrel is rotten, and by the barrel I mean the entire philosophy of the left, the assumptions that have been dominant in the UK and the west generally for the past sixty years and which form the starting point for all discussions on political change. It’s not Nicola Sturgeon who cheats; the left will ALWAYS cheat when it can’t get its way, reasoning that, as they’re more evolved and educated, that they know things that “ordinary” people can’t see, that we’ll all thank them for this later.
.
NeilyBoy,
You have a brilliant way with words. Thank you for that post.
It cheered me up.
Sometimes you have to wade into the BTL quite deeply, but the diamonds are in there to be found.
Nicola & Co., are definitely steaming along that road now. To mix a metaphor, let’s see if she takes a turn down Karma Drive, or maybe energy LetsBe Avenue on her way along the paving stones 🙂
Can anyone advise on what powers Dorrian has, outside Scotland?
For example, what could she do if woman H was named in England as a perjuror?
Or indeed if Dorrian herself was ‘fingered’ in some way?
Lady Dorrian’s judgement sadly puts Scottish justice into a matchbox, ready to go up in flames.
With hindsight Craig must have contemplated to out these sisters staright away, but was too nice to do it, the difference between hard nosed scribes working the Government line, and bloggers such as Craig who discern and hold a standard of respect.
The so called Lady represents a drain, were facts disappear and foam is created blocking all, she represents a danger to the public good, imho.
Her judgement sounds like spite, sour grapes due to the fact that she could not catch the Salmon of her choice, so getting at Craig, failing to have contempt proceedings dealt with impartially and delaying his punishment, knowing full well of his health concerns, was a form of torture.
But she used her time to design a new form of torture and leverage to be used against people accused of ‘sexual crimes’ such as touching hair and putting one’s arms around somebody for a photo, as much as having intercourse with somebody who did not give their consent in a sober state.
To dispense with a jury of peers, i.e. people who live to normal majority standards, when oneself has had a sheltered life, is always fraught with danger.
To complete such work, whilst delaying one’s political judgement on an ex diplomat and public servant who was lauded the youngest most promising Ambassador, for weeks, to hammer out legislation that can be used to smear people who are not guilty and deny them a jury trial, to save one’s own backside and still try to get promotion to replace Lord Carlyle, eventually, was an indication of her personal allegiance to the perjurers that ‘survived’ the costly trial of AS.
For those who might not have read Kirsten McDonalds excellent article she wrote for Craig. Take good care evryone and keep supporting Scotlands political prisoner please.
link to craigmurray.org.uk
I’m afraid I think she is corrupt.Applying the law more strictly to some than others because of bias could be construed as her being tough on certain crimes.
But Dorrian made this one up to ensure that Craig Murray was imprisoned. She re-defined what a Journalist is because of where Craig’s material was published and which organisations he belonged to.She invented a crime based on invisible evidence.
Her job ( because I think she was instructed ) was to imprison Craig.My wife knew her and her sister at Cranley girls school.She was a nasty piece of work then.
And let’s not forget that Craig isn’t exactly in tip top physical condition. Partly his age, some his own fault, but the British State has tried to hurt him before. Stick him into a damp old Edinburgh prison and hope all his conditions get worse.