The Crown Office, The Spectator and a fight for a free press

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The power wielded by Nicola Sturgeon and her Scottish government means it’s hard to hold her to account for basic policy failures — of which there are many. It’s even harder to investigate accusations that her aides conspired to frame and imprison someone who had become a political problem for her. The Alex Salmond affair has shown the many ways the public prosecutors in the Crown Office, led by a member of Sturgeon’s cabinet, have sought to censor and redact his allegations.

The House of Commons is immune to the threats and menaces of government lawyers. The notion of parliamentary privilege, a corner-stone of British democracy, means that anything can be said within the walls of parliament without fear of prosecution. David Davis, a senior Tory MP and lifelong member of the political awkward squad, this week took advantage of that privilege to give a no-holds-barred version of the Salmond story — including new allegations. Under British law, the notion of parliamentary privilege is extended to publications, so The Spectator cannot come under legal attack for reporting what is said in parliament.

Here is what we now know. Salmond has suggested that the criminal allegations against him (he was acquitted of 13 charges of sexual abuse) were at least in part drummed up by Sturgeon’s allies in the face of impeding defeat in the judicial review and to remove him from public life. Sturgeon denies she and her allies were out to get him. But her defence has been littered with contradictions.

For instance, she said she only found out about allegations against Salmond in early April 2018, when the internal inquiry was already under way.