Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill has made an extraordinary and unusual denigrating criticism of the Justices of the UK Supreme Court, claiming that the majority "do not know Scots law," and adding that their knowledge of Scotland was gathered from visits to the Edinburgh Festival.

The legal debate over the extent of the power of the Supreme Court has now spilled over into a political slanging match, following Alex Salmond's bullish remarks after the Supreme Court's judgement in the Nat Fraser case,

"We just want to be treated the same as other legal systems – we’re not, because we’re undermined routinely by a court that sits in another country and is presided over by a majority of judges who have no knowledge of Scots law, never mind Scotland,” MacAskill said.

"It was never intended that the Supreme Court would be routinely changing Scottish criminal law and that is what has happened. It was meant to be a situation that, when the Supreme Court was invoked, criminal law would remain in the jurisdiction of the High Court of Justiciary here in Scotland."

MacAskill also blames the Supreme Court for necessitating the discredited "emergency legislation" which followed the Cadder case.

"Only in Scotland did we see a decision taken in London by a court that was not meant to deal with criminal matters result in a situation where we had to have emergency legislation through the Scottish Parliament and turn Scottish criminal law on its head,"” he said.

"We’ll do so through our own courts at our own pace in our own way, not have it imposed by a court in London that is made up of a majority of judges who do not know Scots Law, who may have visited here for the Edinburgh Festival”.