Supreme Court row: Salmond needs to address ECHR problem, not be subsumed by anti-English rhetoric

Last night on Newsnight Scotland, the First Minister launched a scathing attack on the Supreme Court and its Scottish judges and spoke up in favour of the European Court in Strasbourg. He claimed that:

"The idea that you need a court with a majority of judges from England to tell us how to implement human rights in Scotland I think is an extraordinary way."

And followed up with:

"Now we have the situation where a court in another country (England) is looking at intervening aggressively in our judicial system."

He backed the European Court because ECHR was "written by a Scot" (as opposed to an Englishman?).

Annabel Goldie MSP, Scottish Conservative Leader, said:

"Alex Salmond has decided that this issue should be subsumed by anti-English rhetoric, when he should be examining why the issue arose in the first place. Perhaps he should be asking why Scots law is open to ECHR appeals?

"After all, he and the SNP are enthusiastic advocates of the European Convention. ECHR is incorporated into Scots law. That is a fact.

"So Alex Salmond needs to explain: Why does he prefer the judgement of a foreign court sitting in Strasbourg over that of a court, including two very eminent Scots judges, sitting here in Britain?

"Why is he so exercised by such a rare occurrence – a once a year event – and why is he so outraged by Scottish judges who happen to sit in London just doing their job?

"This 'little Scotlander' mentality is introspective, restrictive and wrong and Alex Salmond does a disservice to the real underlying issue of how ECHR appeals in Scotland should be heard."

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