NEMO me impune lacessit (Latin for “No-one provokes me with impunity”) is the national motto of Scotland. After watching the recent BBC documentary on the life of Alex Salmond I think it needs changed. “No smoke without out fire” would seem appropriate, or perhaps “Innuendo not facts”.

Given the courts are currently overwhelmed, with a backlog longer than the NHS waiting lists for a new hip, we should just abolish the current criminal justice system. Trial by television and/or by newspaper is clearly the answer to this long-term problem. We should close down the courts and let the BBC and a small band of newspaper journalists decide on a person’s innocence or guilt.

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Anonymous witnesses would give testimony without being cross-examined. They would be free to take the moral high ground while failing to match the same standard with their own deeds. Former colleagues would be free to express opinions without evidence and disguise them as facts.

These new judges could also revisit cases already decided by the now obsolete courts and juries, change the verdict to suit biased opinions and unsubstantiated rumours. The recently deceased could have their cases reviewed, verdicts changed and sentences imposed even after their passing. Guilt would of course be assumed in all cases unless there was overwhelming evidence of innocence corroborated by at least three totally independent witnesses.

Verdicts and full personal details of the guilty, their crimes and punishment could be announced in a Sunday newspaper supplement and on a daily basis in place of the 6.30pm BBC Scotlandshire news or perhaps on an entirely new TV channel “BBC Justice Scotland”.

You know it makes sense.

Brian Lawson
Paisley

CLEARLY Alex Salmond was buried far too soon. Following allegations from an anonymous source appearing in several newspapers, and now repeated by the BBC and STV, his body should be exhumed as soon as possible so that he may stand in the dock of the High Court for a second criminal trial. The double jeopardy legislation should be used to both review the outcome of his previous trial and consider these new allegations. Prosecution witnesses will again be protected from possible identification. No defence witnesses will be heard. The “not proven” verdict will not be an option. The trial should be held without a jury and presided over only by Lady Dorrian. Would that be OK?

John Baird
Largs

THIS week in Alba International Branch, we had the erudite Prof Alf Baird addressing us by Zoom on the issues around Scotland’s current situation of being treated by the Westminster elite as their colony.

His talk was carefully couched in the language of liberation theory and was actually surprisingly cheering because it situated our current constitutional impasse in a wider political framework and made it feel less as though we were mired in our own idiocy!

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He expressed some enthusiasm for the need to “keep the pot boiling” on independence and saw that as being reflected in the setting up of new parties like Alba, ISP and Peter Bell’s new Scotland Party as well as the work of Salvo and Liberation in putting together Scotland’s ancient constitution.

While there has been much discussion about taking Scotland’s case to the United Nations Committee on Decolonisation, Prof Baird professed a preference for testing the breaking of the Treaty of Union in the Scottish courts. While one might be nervous about the creeping anglicisation of Scottish court procedures and ideas, he felt it valuable to test the case in Scotland in our highest court before venturing into the international legal field.

Professor Baird is one of Scotland’s best independence advocates, an expert in all aspects of maritime business and the author of Doun Hauden (the Scots for Oppressed) – the only thorough study of Scotland’s entrapment by “the Auld Enemy”.

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He generates enthusiasm for action in his belief that there are several possible routes to independence and they should be put to the test.

Now that Joanna Cherry has been released from the straitjacket of Westminster, perhaps this will free her to work towards more worthwhile independence projects along with some of the more radical Scottish legal minds!

At a time when we are mourning the loss of Alex Salmond, Scotland’s greatest contemporary leader, perhaps we should celebrate his memory by "keeping the pot boiling”!

Maggie Chetty
Glasgow

SINCE October of last year, at least 183 journalists and media workers have been killed due to Israeli attacks on Gaza. Israel has banned journalists from Gaza in an attempt to hide its activities but modern technology means that there are many media workers already there distributing real-time information about the unfolding massacres.

In his message, the Secretary-General of the UN underscored that a free press is fundamental to human rights, to democracy and to the rule of law. Recent years have seen an alarming rate of fatalities in conflict zones, particularly in Gaza, which has seen the highest number of killings of journalists and media workers in a war in modern times. Journalists in Gaza have been killed at a level unseen by any conflict in modern times. The ongoing ban preventing international journalists from Gaza suffocates the truth even further. In addition, all Gaza and West Bank journalism outlets have been closed. This is Israel’s version of accountability and transparency.

B McKenna
Dumbarton