In the matter of the reclaiming motion by Cherry and 78 other, from the outer House we say:
Bored. Bored. Gey bored. All the guid, weighty commercial trials go to London. We have not even the power to enforce our writ beyond fifty miles from this place without that we beg it o’ the London judges. Bored.
Here’s a pretty one though sent up from the Outer House. Nine and seventy petitioners no less, and the Lord Advocate among then, and all the fees they bring.
Aye, the Lord Ordinary is right in all he says – there is not a case to speak to and no law to overturn this act they complain of, nor any precedent to challenge it either, but they do keep yelling and wailing, and the old vox populi, or in any case vox shouty…
They dinnae mind who we are in London, so this may shake them up – we are no some wee county court here – these robes cost a pile o’ money. A big gesture then, and we get noticed, at last.
(We are always overturning primary acts of our local parliament, a toytown parliament as it may be. It so often acts madly and we step in, so could it not be fairer to knock a thing or two from London?)
Now, reckoning as the matter is non-justiciable as the learned Lord Ordinary said, aye, but grand words can fit around that. This is a matter of Royal Prerogative and there is no Act nor precedent to tell us what is a right way and a wrong way to use it, so maybe we can make the rules up as we go. It would indeed be shocking if a politician were permitted to make political decisions for political reasons. (I dislike the look o’ the man too, and I didnae get to send my children to Eton nor even Fettes like that Blair character.)
We shall stand it upon ‘the constitution’ and pass over that there is no constitution, and assume conventions apply, though conventions are not law. Not so bored now, eh?
Our decision may have no grounds, no law, no principle beyond politics, but if we speak it boldly then someone in London will notice we are here at last.
Books
- Scots Law for Journalists by Rosalind McInnes
- Making a Success of Brexit and Reforming the EU by Roger Bootle
- Brexit: Its Necessity and Challenge by Tony Kosuge
- Brexit: How Britain Will Leave Europe by Denis MacShane
- Brexit: Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union by Harold D. Clarke, Matthew Goodwin and Paul Whiteley
- Brexit: How Britain Left Europe by Denis MacShane
- Beyond Brexit: Towards a British Constitution by Vernon Bogdanor
You don’t like the decision, so attack the judges and pretend there’s no basis to their decision. Why not simply just say you don’t like the decision?
There is no basis to their decision. They imputed reasoning of the Government in direct opposition to the fact and evidence that was agreed to in the lower (please remember it is not for the higher courts to decide fact, they are there to decide a point of law).
They then go onto say that, because his actions were unlawful the Prorogation is void. The progoratiion is enacted directly by the crown and there is no statute or other legal authority emanating from parliament the sovereign to defeat that progoration.