We've all been there. You pick up the bottle of coke, Irn Bru or Highland Spring, turn the cap and spray everyone around you with sticky water.
I can't count the number of times I have doused members of my family and friends with unwanted showers in cars, camper vans and tents.
But it seems I have been breaking the criminal law.
The Times solemnly reported this week that, on January 23, 2019, at Dalkeith police station, Alex Salmond was initially charged with “culpable and reckless conduct” for opening a bottle of water in his ministerial car. It had been handed to the then First Minister by his spokesman Ross Ingebrigtsen. “Upon opening, the bottle exploded”, according to the charge sheet, “soaking everyone in the vehicle”. Shock. Horror. Lock him up.
Now, it used to be that the test of whether or not an action broke the criminal law was whether of not a reasonable person would agree that it did. Reasonable persons are clearly thin on the ground in Police Scotland. No reasonable person in their right mind would even consider prosecuting someone for opening a bottle of water.
To read the rest of this analysis, sign up to The Herald's political newsletter, Unspun, for FREE and get unrivalled political analysis in your inbox every day at 6pm.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel