Legalese hogwash

Dr Wills has stated that Shetland Charitable Trust’s “investment” of £10 million in Viking Energy was made “acting on the best legal and financial advice available”.

Where have I heard that phrase used before?

Did I hear it away back in the days of the Nick Reiter affair? Did someone dole it out with regard to the £250,000 David Clark pay-off? Or perhaps it was a line used when £7 million was eaten up by SSG Seafoods?

Was it a remark from a pier-head skipper when £4 million sailed away in the Smyril Line? Maybe it was just a £2 million bit of Anderson High School blarney?

Ah! Now I remember. That phrase was used to excuse the SIC’s £5 million losses on the Bressay Bridge fiasco. 

And how did Dr. Wills describe “the best legal and financial advice available” on that occasion?

He described the legal advice provided as an appendix to chief executive Alistair Buchan’s report on that debacle as “six pages of legalese hogwash.”

Allen Fraser
Meal
Hamnavoe
Burra