Scotland has long abandoned the notion of equality in the eyes of the law to the point that justice is now something only available to those with deep pockets, argues Herald columnist and former General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation Calum Steele

The blindfolded statue of Lady Justice, with scales in one hand and typically a sword in the other, is meant to remind us all that justice is blind; effectively, all men (and women – says he in his best Eric Idle from Monty Python’s Life of Brian voice) are equal under the law. Whether prince or pauper, no one shall have advantage over the other when it comes to our courts.

As tempting as it is to wander down an Andrew Windsor-shaped rabbit hole after an introduction like that, more than enough has been written about the man my late mother regularly called a “plesther”, and every cop I’ve ever known who had the misfortune of being involved in his security detail speaks of him in equally high regard, that I’ll spare you my thoughts on the newly found moral compasses of many on the man who has dominated the news for the past week.

But it is news from the past week that serves to remind us that the symbolism of Lady Justice is, when all is said and done – just that – symbolism. For we have long abandoned the notion of equality to the point that justice is now something only available to those with deep pockets. And even when those with deep pockets prevail, they do so at considerable personal as well as financial cost to themselves.

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As if that wasn’t bad........

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