Campaigners against the abolished tolling regime on the Skye Bridge have written directly to HM The Queen asking her to exercise the ancient Claim of Right, the direct route to the Monarch preserved to allow the people of Scotland to seek direct redress.

The attempt comes as First Minister Alex Salmond has as yet declined to meet with the group, despite publicly pledging that he would look at the group's documentation when asked to by Robbie the Pict.

"Robbie, I will look at your document, you have captured my attention," Salmond told Robbie during the "national conversation" in August 2008.

Dr Shona Bird of the campaign group has now written to the Queen as Salmond has not yet done so, and previous efforts to address the Monarch were subverted by Crown Office officials.

"The actual attempt at ‘disposal’ by the First Minister was even worse. Having appointed the two officials to examine our dossier, they simply reported to the First Minister that there was nothing in the dossier ‘fatal’ to the legitimacy of the toll regime. This was exactly in line with our predictive warning, given that the dossier points out gross failings by these departments. As the old saying goes ‘turkeys do not vote for Christmas'," she wrote.

"In his eventual letter to the Petitioners, Mr Salmond gives no indication that he personally has examined the dossier. When Robbie the Pict travelled at his own expense to Edinburgh to present the dossier, Mr Salmond was not in attendance, despite stating in public and on record that he would look at the dossier. Even after 14 years of disciplined and responsible objecting by our group to governmental failures to comply with statutory requirements, Mr Salmond would not spend any time with our group’s Founder and elected Legal Secretary.

"I am old enough to dare to remind Your Majesty that the Coronation Oath obliges the monarch to uphold the ‘laws and customs’ of the realm. To that end, and on behalf of the people of Scotland in whose interest we are petitioning under the Claim of Right Act, the Petitioners must now ask Your Majesty to personally execute Your Majesty’s constitutional duty under this most fundamental contract," she added.

The letter can be read in full below.

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Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Buckingham Palace
LONDON
England

15 September 2009




FAILED DIVERSION OF PETITION UNDER THE CLAIM OF RIGHT ACT 1689
FORMAL REQUEST FOR AUDIENCE WITH CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONDENT

In a spirit of grave disappointment I write to report that Your Majesty’s passing of responsibility for the examination of grievances, as contained in the Petition under the Claim of Right Act of 1689 to First Minister Alex Salmond, has met with the same fate as when Your Majesty passed the affair to Minister of Justice Jack Straw. In short, it has been passed further downwards and denied justice.

Despite our requests for at least an independent lawyer or perhaps a QC to be present, Mr Salmond simply passed it to two officials, one from each of the departments about whose conduct we were complaining, namely Justice and Transport. I must also report that our Petition, which reflected an ancient right of the people of Scotland and was supposedly to be respected by the House of Hanover as part of an international contract, received even worse treatment in Scotland than it did in England. The Crown Office initially undertook to intercept Your Majesty’s command to the First Minister. A Crown Office official declared that he did not consider the petition to be a Petition under the Claim of Right Act. The Privy Council Office had already advised us in writing that, in their view, the matter was one for only Your Majesty. Having already sought this procedural advice, we therefore found this attempted dismissal by a third party grossly offensive to our rights.

However the actual attempt at ‘disposal’ by the First Minister was even worse. Having appointed the two officials to examine our dossier, they simply reported to the First Minister that there was nothing in the dossier ‘fatal’ to the legitimacy of the toll regime. This was exactly in line with our predictive warning, given that the dossier points out gross failings by these departments. As the old saying goes ‘turkeys do not vote for Christmas’.

In his eventual letter to the Petitioners, Mr Salmond gives no indication that he personally has examined the dossier. When Robbie the Pict travelled at his own expense to Edinburgh to present the dossier, Mr Salmond was not in attendance, despite stating in public and on record that he would look at the dossier. Even after 14 years of disciplined and responsible objecting by our group to governmental failures to comply with statutory requirements, Mr Salmond would not spend any time with our group’s Founder and elected Legal Secretary.

The dossier contains damning evidence of unauthorised tolling which is of course a criminal offence. It includes the unsigned, undated, unpublished and anonymous tolling licence, with a false sum, to the order of tens of millions of pounds, for the tolls which may be lawfully collected. There are even confidential letters from the Crown Office to the local Procurator Fiscal, which needed a request under the Freedom of Information Act, one of which admits the tolling document to be legally ‘incomplete’. That non-document alone is ‘fatal’ to the tolling regime and recognition of that fact in law would relieve 129 persons of wrongful criminal convictions for resisting what now appears to be malfeasance in public office, a fact now being happily ‘covered up’ by Your Scottish National Party Government, much to our dismay.

I am old enough to dare to remind Your Majesty that the Coronation Oath obliges the monarch to uphold the ‘laws and customs’ of the realm. To that end, and on behalf of the people of Scotland in whose interest we are petitioning under the Claim of Right Act, the Petitioners must now ask Your Majesty to personally execute Your Majesty’s constitutional duty under this most fundamental contract. To that end we seek a personal audience to present our dossier. We need not trouble Your Majesty for more than one hour.

I am also old enough to have observed a steady decline in public standards in this United Kingdom coinciding with Your Majesty’s reign. Respect for the integrity of government has gone. I am not for a minute suggesting that is the fault of Your Majesty but I was told as a child that the two World Wars were fought to protect our people from any attack on our democracy and our civilised life under the Rule of Law. My fellow-petitioner has served as an RAF Policemen in Your Majesty’s forces, yet your Press Office has replied to a journalist that ‘we have had many letters from this gentleman and they have been passed to the appropriate authorities’. Well, I have not chosen to change my name and thus risk such disdain. I urge Your Majesty to go part-ways to restoring some respect for the institution of government, Your Majesty’s Government, and personally deal with this matter promptly and efficaciously. 14 years of gross injustice is enough. Some five of us have now died with our names stained by wrongful criminal convictions, most recently Alec Smith of Portnalong who family have now urged us to seek to clear their father’s name. However, one hundred and twenty four of us remain and we are sorely grieved by the conduct of Your Majesty’s Ministers and Judges. Now only Your Majesty can offer redress.

With utmost respect,



Dr Shona Bird,
Petitioner
Member of the SKAT Legal Group.