Double standards in political life

DUNCAN Hamilton's defence of the three Labour MPs and one Tory peer who are seeking to invoke the principle of parliamentary privilege in order to avoid legal proceedings to which every other citizen would be subjected is as morally offensive as it is legally objectionable (Insight, 14 March).

It will also do little to mitigate the negative perception which the electorate have of the political establishment.

Mr Hamilton may be seeking to be fair-minded, but the rock upon which that particular exculpatory lifeboat crashes is the universally applicable doctrine known as Fraus Omnia Corrumpit, which effectively strikes out the plea of immunity.

It goes without saying that the defendants in this case are entitled to a fair trial, but the administration of justice has, for centuries, been based upon the doctrine that all are equal under the law. In the statutes of King Robert the Bruce, it is stated unequivocally that legal process must apply to rich and poor alike – even the monarch might lose his privileges if he be adjudged guilty of serious transgression.

This creeping culture of a de facto two-tier judicial system which confers certain exemptions upon the political classes is affecting public life at a variety of levels, and Scotland is not exempt. The police reportedly approached the leader of Glasgow City Council to warn him about his potential exposure to blackmail, rather than to caution and arrest him for his use of an illegal class A drug. Had they been dealing with an unemployed 17-year-old from Raploch, Easterhouse, or Wester Hailes, would they have shown such understanding? I doubt it.

David J Black, Edinburgh