COURT OF SESSION (1)

Another day - and another fine mess for Scotland's nationalist government.

 

Way back in 2012 or thereabouts,  the nationalists passed a law that said accohol could not be sold lower than  a specific minimum price.  In other words,  they passed a law that would add another fortune to the already-enormous profits of supermarkets.  A lot of people didn't like the new law. 

 

The Scotch Whisky Association decided to do something about it.  They issued a challenge in the Court of Session but the judge there,  one Raymond (Lord) Doherty,  agreed with the nationalistas.  He dismissed the Scotch Whisky Association's case out of hand,  saying that 'In my opinion none of the challenges to the minimum pricing measures is well founded.  There is no proper basis for the petitioners being granted any of the remedies which they seek'.

 

However,  the Scotch Whisky Association was having none of it and off they went to the European Court of Justice. We now learn that that court's Advocate General is very much on the side of the Scotch Whisky Association and that it is bad news for the nationalists and the Court of Session.

 

In our view,  it is pretty fundamental stuff and yet another abject lesson in failure for the Court of Session in that how could one of its justices get it so completely wrong.  That court badly needs completely new blood and completely fresh thinking to bring it into the 21st century and make it fit for purpose.