Marion Millar's case delayed yet again!

[PandorasMailbox]

On the FWS Twitter thread.
Couldn't see this posted anywhere

For Women Scotland

ANNOUNCEMENT

We have learnt @millar_marion's hearing has AGAIN been deferred, this time to 30th Aug. We know many were planning to come up, if you can rearrange do so. We will try to do something for those who can't & will update.

twitter.com/ForwomenScot/status/1426183593865486339

They've updated again, it's the 31st according MM and FWS.

Apparently, it's a bank holiday too.

@PandorasMailbox

Apparently, it's a bank holiday too.

For England and Wales (so, foul for travel) but not in Scotland.

tbh, with concerns about COVID–19 and the backlog in criminal cases, they'll be looking to delay all the non-serious stuff. (I know nothing, I'm channelling what Secret Barrister says about courts in England, here.)

Thanks @EmbarrassingAdmissions

I'm in England, so was thinking about those who might want to attend.

Let's hope the case will be dropped. It's beyond ridiculous now.

This is a sneaky form oc harassment.

Best wishes to Marion.

of harassment.

How is she supposed to get childcare on a Bank holiday?

@Thelnebriati

How is she supposed to get childcare on a Bank holiday?

It's not a Bank Holiday in Scotland.

Thats good to know. How many times can they delay it though?

All these delays seem to be a legal form of psychological torture….

Anyone else thinking of the cat and mouse tactics used against the suffragettes?

The authorities are keen to avoid fighting this in court but they're using the process to cause damage to Marion Millar in the hope of discouraging her launching a counter claim.

The Scottish authorities appear to have mistaken Kafka's The Trial for an instruction manual.

I think some of it is COVID–19 and what it has done to court schedules. As for the rest, didn't something similar happen to Craig Murray and his case?

But the discussion about the process being the punishment reminded me of a passage from Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate. Grossman captures just how unrelenting it is for an individual to withstand totalitarian pressures:

But an invisible force was crushing him. He could feel its weight, its hypnotic power; it was forcing him to think as it wanted, to write as it dictated. This force was inside him; it could dissolve his will and cause his heart to stop beating… Only people who have never felt such a force themselves can be surprised that others submit to it. Those who have felt it, on the other hand, feel astonished that a man can rebel against it even for a moment—with one sudden word of anger, one timid gesture of protest.

Secondary link for the discussion in this blog post although a link to the quoted text is available through Google books as well as here: inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/avoiding-totalitarianism/

From the blog post:

Freedom will only be realized in an environment in which it is carefully nurtured and jealously protected. A society that desires to preserve the freedom of its citizens must encourage active dissent. It must nurture contrary views and support the full expression of any opinions that do not actively incite violence or hatred.

A community that desires to avoid the violence of totalitarianism will view censorship with great suspicion and will approach with tremendous caution any demand for uniformity.

However, the UK parliament is sovereign, meaning it retains the ability to legislate even in devolved areas of criminal justice – although under the Sewel Convention it does “not normally” do so without the consent of the relevant devolved legislature. With this in mind, I wonder if they have been mindful of the 'hate crime' reviews going on in the UK and the appeal of Harry Miller. I would also think, that to prosecute for hate crime when it is an aggravating offence rather than a crime in itself (someone correct me) must be causing some issues and the parties themselves may be asking for delays. After all, it's not that long since the arrest.

Even pre Covid there were huge delays with cases in Scotland. You could sit for over a year before your case came to trial. Even a fairly minor motoring offence can put the accused into an unholy limbo with their insurers and employers until it is settled. Imagine the horror for accused,victims and witnesses if a serious crime is involved. There are now tens of thousands of criminal cases sitting in a backlog and estimates of when the backlog will be cleared range from eight years to - never. Of course,it doesn't help that the Scottish Parliament seems to be obsessed with inventing new crimes to clog up the underfunded crisis-mode justice system even more.

Hate speech is not trivial.

You keep on pretending that women's rights = hate. We see you.

Herald article:

On June 28, Ms Cherry, who shares some of Ms Millar’s views on gender recognition, announced she had been engaged to conduct the defence.

It is understood advocate Paul Harvey will act as junior counsel alongside Ms Cherry, and that Ms Millar’s defence will involve human rights.

The case has already attracted international attention on free speech grounds.

The American legal analyst Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Chair of Public interest Law at George Washington University, has called it part of a “free speech fight brewing in Scotland”.

archive: archive.is/Mzp7A

www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19513326.new-court-delay-scots-feminist-charged-hate-crime/?ref=twtrec

They'll either double down or drop it as it's becoming a really hot topic.

So if they drop the case will Marion have a case for wrongful arrest?

Quietly dropping the case on August Bank Holiday would suit the powers that be perhaps.

Even if they drop the case she should go after them for harassment or make a complaint or something, they can't be allowed to get away with this.

Either way, the police will lose.

Cave at the court steps or tough it out?

If the latter, this reminds me of Regina vs Penguin Books, 1960, where the Establishment made itself look stupid, culminating in the appeal to the members of the (all-male) jury if this was a book they would allow their wives or servants to read?

@Thelnebriati

You keep on pretending that women's rights = hate. We see you.

The court will decide on that. And they see you!