Yes it has been rather quiet here, a mixture of holidays and planning a new site which Scottish Sketch will spin into. Expect that to arrive as the new parliamentary session starts.
Update: Sept 2nd. As with most plans, it’s taking a bit longer so I’ll still be here now the new session is here.
“While there has been a limited number of cases in Scotland which were investigated in terms of the Terrorism Act 2000, I am not aware of any case where an extension of the period beyond 28 days would have been required. “I therefore share the view of the DPP (Director of public prosecutions) Sir Ken MacDonald and the former Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, that the requirement for an extension to the current 28 day is not supported by prosecution experience to date.”
Scottish Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini
“For our part as prosecutors, we don’t perceive any need for the period of 28 days to be increased. Our experience has been that we have managed comfortably within 28 days. We have therefore not asked for an increase in 28 days. It is possible to set up all sort of hypotheses … Anything is possible – the question is whether it’s remotely likely. …prosecutors were “better placed” than the police to judge whether or not there was sufficient evidence to charge a suspect.
Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken MacDonald
Lord Goldsmith… repeated that he would have resigned if the Government not previously withdrawn its proposals when he was its chief law officer. “I was opposed to 90 days: contrary to what some commentators have said I never supported 90 days – as was clear inside Government and actually known outside Government too – and would have had to resign if the original 90-day proposal had come to the Lords for a vote.”
(Former) Attorney General Lord Goldsmith
Gordon Brown’s almost religious fervour to have 42 Days on the books (or at least have Conservatives voting against a ‘anti-terrorist’ measure, has now been thrice denied. It remains for a handful of Labour MP’s to stand behind their country, rather than their ‘leader.’
PS: Today is the vote on the changes to the Coroners system, which allows the Home Secretary to over-ride any decision and appoint his or her own choice of Coroner, and to label an inquiry as ’secret’ and censor the publication of the outcome. That alone should make you worry, but at the same time it can also be applied retrospectively to existing cases. Can anyone think which tube station this might be used in conjunction with?
From Nadine Dorries (Con, Mid Bedfordshire):
Is there a better communication tool than a blog?
In my mind it’s one of the best tools. Why don’t you try using one? You know, where people can leave comments, where there can be discussion and argument and resolution, where the headlines linked to the articles, with useful text links called “permalinks” rather than massively cryptic URL’s (you should fix them to the title of the post, it’ll help your SEO no end). How about allowing the RSS.xml to be auto-discovered in your HTML header code. Or an RSS feed with all the content of the post?
Or would you rather preach to us rather than listen?
Your reading assignment, should you choose to accept it, is Naked Conversations and The Cluetrain Manifesto.
And try not to bring family into it, there’s more graceful ways of attacking your opponents.
Rumbles today from Benedict Brogan’s Political Blog on a ‘potential’ upcoming by-election – with enough caveats about who it could be as the Member of Parliament is ill. By not mentioning who exactly it was, Brogan set the bloggers a hunting, and the evidence points to the constituency of John MacDougall MP, of Glenrothes.
If there were to be a by-election in the central Fife constituency, it should on paper be a safe seat for Labour. It’s slap bang in the natural stronghold of Fife; Glenrothes is the seat of power in the area both for the local council and Labour; and close by is Dunfermline and West Fife – likely to be the only Labour Gain once a General Election is called. There’s every likelihood that while it won’t be a family inheritance candidate such as Tamsin Dunwoody), it will be a strong, dare I say it ‘traditional’ Scottish Labour Party member (another ‘promoted’ Fife Labour Councillor in the form of Alex Rowley perhaps).
But it’s not that easy. The obvious electoral test is what happened in this constituency at the Scottish Election last year – Central Fife is the closest and saw a 7.6% swing to the SNP from Labour, and with that it was another SNP Gain. Something like a 14.5% swing (if my maths works out) would be needed for an SNP Gain (what was the Crewe and Nantwich number again?), the current majority is around 10,000. Is that do-able? In the current climate both against Labour, and with a credible by-election opposition in the SNP (who can now point to the Scottish Parliament and how ‘responsible’ they are when in power) it would be a very close run contest.
Personally I think it would still be a LAB hold, but with a much reduced majority. Even that would be a dagger in the Labour heartlands – the knives would be out for Gordon Brown if the SNP get within 1,000 votes here – who knows what would happen if they were to loose the seat. Especially as next door to Glenrothes is Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, Brown’s own constituency. You’d think that an 18,000 majority would be rock solid, especially as Gagarin Way is inside the boundaries…
If there were to be a by-election, the drawbridges would have to be raised when it’s over. The friendly fire alone would require it.
Alcohol’s Minimum Age Change to 21 Ignores Enforcement
Posted September 3, 2008 by Ewan SpenceCategories: Commentary
Tags: 18, 21, alcohol, carding, drinking, id, underage
Whenever I visit America, I invariably travel through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, and stop off at one of the concourse Bar and Grills. One of the things that I notice, but it perfectley acceptable by most of the domestic travellers is that whenever someone asks for an alcoholic drink, they are asked for ID (which of course as their date of birth on it). Even the couple who appear to be of pensionable age are carded, and think nothing of it.
In all the debate about the raising of the age where adults can buy alcholo outwith a club or bar from 18 to 21, the issue of the enforcement of the current 18 year old limit seems to have been lost. It’s all well and good proposing new laws, but if it is not enforced, it’s just as usless as the previous one.
We have enough items of ’soft’ ID that can be used to prove someone’s age that I would much rather see the idea of ‘carding everyone’ brought over from the States to Scotland, than a new law that makes good headlines but fundamentally doesn’t address the underage drinking problem that Scotland clearly has.
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