Supreme Court
The SNP Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill was slapped down by the First Minister this weekend after he described Judges of the Supreme Court as “ambulance chasing judges who knew nothing about Scotland other than visits to Edinburgh Festival”. Two of the judges on the receiving end of the MacAskill jibe were Lord Hope of Craighead and Lord Rogers of Earlsferry both former Lords President to the Court of Session who sit on the Supreme Court as Scottish Judges.
Slap down
MacAskill’s pompous and capacious attack of the Supreme Court may have gone down well at a SNP ceilidh over a few minimum priced cans of beer, but not from the office of Scotland’s Justice Minister. The measure of MacAskill’s faux pas became very clear to him when his boss and mentor Alex Salmond was forced from an initial supporting stance, to disown and jettison him when the Scottish legal establishment erupted in disbelief and fury. The setting up of the Lord McCluskie Inquiry is an attempt by Salmond to save face, but somewhere in the not too distant future the Justice Minister will have to utter the two words he failed to utter when he released the PanAm 103 Lockerbie mass murderer Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, i.e. “I’m sorry”.
Supreme Court / Slap Down
Supreme Court
The SNP Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill was slapped down by the First Minister this weekend after he described Judges of the Supreme Court as “ambulance chasing judges who knew nothing about Scotland other than visits to Edinburgh Festival”. Two of the judges on the receiving end of the MacAskill jibe were Lord Hope of Craighead and Lord Rogers of Earlsferry both former Lords President to the Court of Session who sit on the Supreme Court as Scottish Judges.
Slap down
MacAskill’s pompous and capacious attack of the Supreme Court may have gone down well at a SNP ceilidh over a few minimum priced cans of beer, but not from the office of Scotland’s Justice Minister. The measure of MacAskill’s faux pas became very clear to him when his boss and mentor Alex Salmond was forced from an initial supporting stance, to disown and jettison him when the Scottish legal establishment erupted in disbelief and fury. The setting up of the Lord McCluskie Inquiry is an attempt by Salmond to save face, but somewhere in the not too distant future the Justice Minister will have to utter the two words he failed to utter when he released the PanAm 103 Lockerbie mass murderer Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, i.e. “I’m sorry”.