In terms of new information, the report confirms (I think perhaps for the first time) that at least 16 Scottish subpostmasters were jailed as a result of the Post Office Horizon scandal. Only one of the cases heard by the Appeal Court resulted in a custodial disposal.
The Scottish Government have just published its statutory report on implementation of the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act 2024, including information on number of subpostmasters' convictions quashed. www.gov.scot/publications...
Can't believe I missed this one (via Tommy Ross KC). What happens if you're on trial & you seize the moment to take a selfie & upload it to the internet with the legend "ha ha court"? In Inverness at least - the answer is up to 12 months imprisonment. www.scottishlegal.com/articles/ha-...
Looking back over the last decade, environmental and planning cases like this one are the leading campaign issue in Scottish crowdfunding campaigns - followed closely by gender critical litigation.
📈"The Save Todrig from Sitka spruce plantation" campaign crowdfunded £19,000 in support of the case. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-todri...
🦋 Crowdfunded environmental campaign group Restore Nature successfully challenge Scottish Forrestry in Court of Session judicial review, (turning in part on the impact on the Northern brown argus butterfly, pictured). www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/zoddjk...
This IPSO adjudication against the Telegraph is quite something
Confirms their story titled: ‘We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays’ was completely fabricated, with the family involved non-existent and stock pictures used
www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/0210...
Maybe they do! It is just the turn of phrase which is confusing me.
I have to say I've always found the idea of holidaying in a repressive tyranny one of the stranger things people do...
A sad case, but I'm not sure I wholly understand why it is characterised as "the first prosecution of its kind in Scotland." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Unexpected things I've learned this week: Iran is the last bastion of the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiatic...
Labour minister Josh Simons resigns after falsely linking journalists who exposed Labour Together’s funding disclosure failures to a “pro-Kremlin” network in emails to GCHQ, despite having professed to be “surprised” and “furious” about a PR firm’s attempts to discredit them and their journalism.
Our contribution is mainly in episode two, which features discussion of Fraser's prosecution(s), appeal(s) - but also some of our GCU law students. We still use the documentary as a teaching tool on the LLB - a real life example for students of a real Scottish trial. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
"The Hunt for Arlene Fraser's Killer" is a new two-part documentary commissioned for BBC Scotland. It was a privilege to be able to participate in the recording, explaining key legal issues. Episode 1 broadcast tonight on BBC Scotland, BBC2 later this week & on iPlayer www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
📉 In moderately interesting facts, there have now been at least 275 legal crowdfunders launched in Scotland since 2014, seeking just under £10 million in funding support for legal advice or action, raising just under £4.7 million from 127,500 people.
Does the biggest risk of contempt of court these days arise from social media - or our from politicians? Today's @scotnational.bsky.social column on a week of Murrell and Mountbatten-Windsor.
www.thenational.scot/politics/258...
📈 Having passed the permission stage in the Court of Session, the Scottish challenge to the proscription of Palestine Action is now the 12th biggest crowdfunder in Scottish litigation history, having currently raised £125,493. www.crowdjustice.com/case/scottis...
Amen. High heat. Not overcooked. Generously salted. Like crack when done right. www.theguardian.com/food/2026/fe...
I can't help but think this adaptation of Wuthering Heights has taken some serious liberties with content and tone the original source material.
⚖️ The Divisional Court's full judgment in Ammori, finding that the Home Secretary's proscription of Palestine Action was unlawful. www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...
This is not the fault of the average political reporter, despatched dutifully to report from an unfamiliar environment with no prior understanding of what's going on and the exclusionary vocabulary legal argument often takes. But crivens, it's a powerful waste of everyone's time.
Understanding almost nothing, they hang around court until any kind of punchy, quotable phrase is uttered by anyone, and because they've no idea what's really going on, quote with no context, relieved to have anything to say.
Thesis: sending political journalists to cover any kind of moderately complex legal case is almost a complete waste of time for everyone concerned, particularly for the unlucky hack in question.
The only thing you can really take away from this data is that vanishingly few prisoners are ever released from Scottish prisons on compassionate grounds. I am, however, moderately interested in why certain names are "withheld." www.gov.scot/publications...
"No record or recollection" of being given $75,000. I'm sure we can all emphathise Lord Mandelson. Which of us wouln't easily mentally misplace being given this kind of modest persona contribution? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I'm not entirely convinced wearing shorts reaches the threshold of "willful defiance, disrespect, or challenges the authority of the court" - though the Naked Rambler Stephen Gough definitively established that wheeching off *all* your kegs would qualify. news.stv.tv/east-central...
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has published the findings from its 16th case study, focusing on Fettes College in Edinburgh. www.childabuseinquiry.scot/news/scottis...
Scottish headline of the day. "Accidentally" being a top notch inclusion. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I'm mercifully not too much in my dumps - my nature generally runs sanguine - but jeezo today is a gloomer.
