‘This is a price the UK pays for the worldwide use of English, a price generally considered worth paying for the many uncosted, and generally unacknowledged, benefits it brings to the UK, both economically and culturally.’
Criminal justice
Opioids: unintended consequences of a good policy
‘Ensuring that police practices reduce, rather than exacerbate, harms to drug users is an important part of that. Policing is part of the picture; now more than ever, collective action can help reduce drug-related deaths.’
Clara Ponsati and Scottish justice
‘By examining this application under the EAW very carefully, the Scottish courts would be protecting justice in Scotland and Europe from the arbitrary misuse of law by dark forces which threaten not just democratic politics in Spain, but also the continued survival of the EAW itself’.
Football Act shown the red card
‘When the dust settles, there should be reflection on the fact that creating new broad criminal offences in society without political or legal consensus is extremely problematic. Further targeting of one group in society for criminal sanction – in this case football supporters – is difficult to justify’.
Revealed: ongoing costs of flawed BTP merger
‘The BTP merger isn’t what it said on the tin and, if anything, now looks like a threat to both the future of Scottish policing and railway policing on both sides of the border.’
The case for an independent review of the BTP merger
“It (review of timetable for BTP merger) needs to be independent, transparent and at arm’s length from government. Oversight by a board that is co-chaired by senior civil servants and reports to Scottish Ministers doesn’t pass this test and would allow the Scottish Government to mark its own homework.
Police Scotland disarray deepens
The fact that Gormley had direct oversight of undercover policing at the Met before he became Scotland’s chief constable just adds another curious twist to the ongoing Police Scotland saga. Now his resignation puts to rest one long-running element of what many consider a damning indictment of Scotland’s centralised police force. But lack of institutional reform and the blurring of accountability means further problems will surely not be far away.
Police Scotland: a government intervention too far
‘As 2018 begins, policing in Scotland is in crisis: no chief constable, a justice minister facing political and legal challenges over his behaviour and a national police authority forced to re-establish its reputation and define its role. A close examination of the structures is urgently needed if this crisis is to be resolved’.
Passing the baton on the BTP merger
‘Having failed to resolve these differences prior to the Act, as well as a myriad of other problems, the realities of integration are now coming to the fore, while the baton has passed to the SPA. Charged with providing assurance and oversight, the Authority has some exceptionally hard decisions ahead on what is a fiendishly complex project, against a backdrop of rising demand on police services and increasing cost pressure.’
Who guards the guards at Police Scotland?
‘To reiterate, our concerns in no way reflect the abilities, experience or skills of Hogg, or other Scottish Government secondees. The issue is the independence of the SPA and the fact that the water between police and government now looks even muddier’.