I CAN readily understand the bemusement of Ineos following the Court of Session judgment (“Fracking has not been banned in Scotland, judge rules” & “Ground shaky under the SNP on fracking”, Herald View, June 20).
In the face of clear statements by the First Minister, the Energy Minister, and the Transport Minister to the contrary, the judge find , after deliberation, that fracking is not banned in Scotland.
Lord Pentland judge may be founding upon fine legal points but the judgment does nothing for the public taking at face value the statements of politicians.
Counsel for the Scottish Government is reported to have said that such statements by government ministers contained the “language of a press statement”.
We will all learn now to approach SNP press statements with considerable circumspection.
Some of a literary persuasion may now consider that the law at this time has assumed the asinine qualities referred to by Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist and recall Tweedledee saying in Alice in Wonderland, “Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic”.
No doubt the Ineos case will go down in legal annals, at least for the unexpectedness of its outcome.
Ian W Thomson,
38 Kirkintilloch Road,
Lenzie.
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