Quintin Jardine's blog

Way back in the 70s, just after the SNP had enjoyed its first significant success at a general election, two of its members were heard to joke that come the first Scottish government, one would be the Minister for Truth, and the other the Minister for Jails. John Herbert McCluskey QC must have been listening. He was Solicitor General then, a post he held for five years, without ever ascending to the higher office of Lord Advocate. Today, in his 80’s he’s a legal big gun of sorts. Unfortunately he seems to be loaded with grapeshot, to maximise the casualties.

If you have any interest in personal freedom, please read this, and applaud.

http://www.scottishreview.net/index.shtml?utm_source=Sign-Up.to&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8427-290420-What+happens+when+the+Scottish+Review+refuses+to+register%3F

I suspect that Alex Salmond is too polite to tell Lord McCluskey to his face that his report on the shackling of the public press does a disservice to him and to every person on his panel. I can’t believe that he concurs with it. If these proposals were ever enacted, there would not be a single journalist in Scotland, and among their number I include online magazine proprietors and even bloggers like my not so humble self, who would be able to speak their mind without wondering when His Lordship’s heavy hand would bang on their door.

Eventually, we can expect much less draconian proposals to emerge from the Scottish Government, but I agree with Kenneth Roy. This terrible document should be repudiated at once.