Judges reject legal challenge against Carmichael
Judges have rejected the legal attempt to have Alistair Carmichael unseated as MP for the isles.
Four Orkney constituents raised an action against Mr Carmichael under the Representation of the People Act (1983) after his re-election to the Orkney and Shetland seat in May.
They raised the action in the rarely-held Election Court, claiming Mr Carmichael’s narrow election win should be declared null and void.
They were angered over his role in leaking a Scotland Office memo which formed the basis of a story in The Daily Telegraph on 3rd April.
The story’s headline claimed First Minister Nicola Sturgeon would have preferred to see the Tories return to Downing Street after the General Election.
The four constituents, Timothy Morrison, Phemie Matheson, Fiona Grahame and Carolyn Welling, were aided by crowd funding.
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iantinkler
£200,000 plus pounds down the Swanee. That could have put a hell of a lot of food in the food banks and done a hell of a lot of good over the Christmas break for the poor and needy suffering from the much proclaimed “Austerity cuts”! All that waste, courtesy of those political point scorers, whom had nothing to gain, apart from some kind of vindictive triumph. I do not mean “the Orkney four”, whom appear to be but pawns, manipulated by the faceless and nameless propagandists, who backed and encouraged them. So very, very sad, everyone has lost. No doubt the spin boys of the “Yes” brigade will try to make something positive out of this, but the fact is they lost again and lost big time, perhaps they should stump up the legal costs., or will Buster the neutered Cat rampant show his lack of bits yet again!
Robin Stevenson
So now Scotland knows where it stands. Ali C is [apparently] innocent. There’s officially nothing wrong with a minister of the UK government deliberately lying in an attempt to undermine the democratically-elected First Minister of Scotland before a general election, smearing foreign ambassadors in the process, then admitting his wrongdoing but refusing to stand down, flicking two fingers at his own constituents and the whole country.
So from now on, everybody should lie to everybody, particularly to those in authority, then when you go to court, you have a precedent you can cite.
Timothy Morrison, Phemie Matheson, Fiona Grahame and Carolyn Welling, Thank you all for being brave enough to take on the establishment, sadly, justice did not prevail.
iantinkler
“a minister of the UK government deliberately lying in an attempt to undermine the democratically-elected First Minister of Scotland” So Robin Stevenson lying, a mistake or just plain ignorant?. Check your dates Robin Stevenson. At the time Ali C was no minister of any government!!! an ex minister perhaps! Now when Salmond lied about EU membership, or the SNP MPs under police investigation, o dear me!
Brian Smith
That’s £200,000 that won’t be going to charities, then.
Rachel Buchan
Who is to say that it would have anyway? There is no telling what people would have spent their money on instead.