The Scottish Law Commission recommend significant reforms to the Scots law of homicide. www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/files/3017/5...

A... remarkable new @walesgovernance.bsky.social ITV Wales @yougov.co.uk poll of Welsh voting intentions for the next Senedd election (changes since May) - Plaid 30% (-) - Reform 29% (+4) - Labour 14% (-4) - Cons 11% (-2) - Lib Dems 6% (-1) - Green 6% (+1) - Other 4% (+2) #Senedd #devolution

A wheen of amendments to be considered in Holyrood this week, as the Victims, Witnesses and Criminal Justice Bill reaches its third and final stage of scrutiny. www.parliament.scot/-/media/file...

"The grotesque chaos of a Labour government - a Labour government..." www.thenational.scot/politics/254...

Inquiry to hold event in Scotland to explore how Horizon scandal impacted communities www.postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk/news/inquiry...

Why did Ian Murray get the heave-ho as Secretary of State for Scotland, and just why did Keir Starmer choose Douglas Alexander as his successor? www.thenational.scot/politics/254...

On a day where Rayner's resignation was at least forseeable, was anyone contemplating the Secretary of State for Scotland getting jotters too? I'm a but puzzled about the internal party rationale for Starmer shooting Ian Murray back into orbit now. Theories on a postcard please.

Today, the Post Office scandal inquiry has published a short report on the health and wellbeing impacts of the scandal on people affected by it. www.postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk/sites/defaul...

In Holyrood, the third and final stage of the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill has now been scheduled for the 16th and 17th of September. www.parliament.scot/bills-and-la...

Important story rather buried in the Sunday Mail yesterday - Scottish Police Federation make good on their earlier threat to challenge Lord Bracadale's apparent bias in judicial review petition to Court of Session. www.scottishlegal.com/articles/pol...

“Social media isn't the primary engineroom of ethnic and religious divisions in the UK. Our feral press is.” Today's Herald on Sunday / Sunday National column. www.thenational.scot/politics/254...

Door furniture in Greek Thomson's Great Western Terrace (no. IV). #Glasgow #architecture #photography

Out today in Nature is the most exciting dinosaur paper I've ever been involved in - led by @tweetisaurus.bsky.social we describe a partial skeleton of the UTTERLY BIZARRE Spicomellus from the Middle Jurassic of Morocco, the oldest known ankylosaur. (1/x) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tonight's 🐟 themed conundrum: should I make (a) kedgeree or (b) fish pie with this nice peat-smoked haddock fillet?

An unusual case in the Sheriff Appeal Court - on the law regulating the exhumation of human remains. Family members of a deceased young woman sought lawful authority to remove her remains from Edinburgh to Monaco for reburial. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/siap4y...

Livestreaming from Scottish appeals extended to criminal cases. The Court of Session facility launched in the summer of 2023. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry publishes fifteenth volume of case study findings on Keil School in Dumbarton. www.childabuseinquiry.scot/news/scottis...

The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow is finally reopening after seven years fallow. There will be a tide of goodwill for this homecoming - me included - but why is the company's re-naugural season so idiosyncratic? www.thenational.scot/culture/2541...

"Would you climb Irvine's 25ft greasy pole for a ham?" A philosophical question for the ages... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Freemen on the land (or at least, their pseudo-legal arguments) reach the Sheriff Appeal Court. A Dundee man who didn't pay his mortgage tried to persuade the court he wasn't liable for his debt as a "living man." It went... about as well as you'd expect. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/hzyppz...

At GCU Law, we are very pleased to be launching a new academic prize for our miscarriages of justice class, named in memory of Fife "witch" Lilias Adie and generously sponsored by the Witches of Scotland campaign founders Zoe Venditozzi & Claire Mitchell KC. www.scottishlegal.com/articles/gcu...

On Escaping Loki. I read Darren McGarvey's new book "Trauma Industrial Complex" this week, in today's Sunday National & Herald on Sunday. www.thenational.scot/culture/2539...

The end of a long legal saga. One interesting detail for comparative lawyers in this - in Utah, criminal cases are normally heard by a jury of just 8 people. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Lord Bracadale refuses to recuse himself from the chair of the Sheku Bayoh inquiry. Lawyers from the Scottish Police Federation have previously indicated they are likely to seek judicial review of this decision. www.shekubayohinquiry.scot/sites/defaul...

Sometimes, debates involving well-credentialled folk aren't all they seem. Some kinds of stupidity only afflict very smart people. The idea recognising the state of Palestine is illegal, unlawful or somehow contrary to international law is one of them. www.thenational.scot/politics/253...

Altogether, another excellent week of food in the south of France, including plenty of tasty underwater specimens, from gilt-head bream and turbot sauvage to some lovely local oysters from the Étang de Thau.

The spoot, the spoot, the bonny spoot.

No columns from me for the next fortnight. I've gone fishin' (in a sense).

📰 Belated punt to yesterday's Sunday National/Herald on Sunday column, on Sir Wyn Williams' first volume of findings on the human impact of the Post Office scandal and the "egregious" delays in prompt, full, and fair compensation. www.thenational.scot/politics/253...

Reflections on Sir Keir Starmer's lolloping slosh - 12 months after Labour took power. www.thenational.scot/politics/252...

Student with dual British and South African nationality loses attempt to challnge Scottish University's differential fee regime in Court of Session. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/1ridl1...

Decision of the Court of Session in its supervisory capacity dealing with Nursing and Midwifery Council attempts to extend interim orders against a number of nurses under investigation for very lengthy periods. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/uzzo3f...

Is the Sheku Bayoh Inquiry about to collapse? www.thenational.scot/politics/252...

On the assisted dying debate in Westminster, one thing I haven't seen highlighted is how the votes from Scottish MPs broke down, particularly given the slim majority in favour. While SNP MPs abstained on the English proposals, Scottish Labour MPs voted strongly (63%) against.

As arguments go, complaining that the assisted dying Bill "focuses unduly on those who want assisted dying" seems like an idiosyncratic and artificial one to me. Laws establishing new frameworks for lawful decision-making need to focus on this detail. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

New Scottish crowdfunded judicial review, this time on education policy in Argyll and Bute. www.crowdjustice.com/case/mullcam...

Significant sentences for four men convicted of defrauding NHS Scotland out of £6 million, with their evidence being described by Lord Arthurson as "self-serving, arrogant and mendacious." judiciary.scot/home/sentenc...

The first Court of Session defamation case we've seen reported for a while - more football-flavoured litigation, this time involving St Mirren FC. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/51opwd...

Today's column: Sir Keir Starmer is arguably the most mendacious politician at work in the UK today. www.thenational.scot/politics/251...

The Scottish court service have cautioned folk who follow their judgments feed using RSS to turn this off next week - as they've about to migrate over around 9,000 historic judgments(!) to their new site. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/kixbx5...

Now, with a majority of MSPs prepared to support the Bill's general principles, potentially the most delicate phase for legislating for assisted dying begins. This weekend's column. www.thenational.scot/politics/251...

*38 years* www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

📻 I was on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on legal aspects of the Scottish Parliament's debate and vote this afternoon on the Assisted Dying Bill. Available from 1:14:27 minutes in: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

On behalf of all academics with oodles of online marking to do over the next week, I think I speak for all of us when I say: this speight of fine weather is a personal attack.

Understanding the Impacts of the Post Office Scandal postofficeproject.net/wp-content/u...

MSPs will vote on the Assisted Dying Bill at stage 1 this week. If it doesn't pass - it falls. Today's column, aiming to explain key features of the law as it now stands, what the new Bill proposes, and why voting against the Bill isn't a neutral choice. www.thenational.scot/politics/251...

In one of the less surprising verdicts in British legal history. news.stv.tv/world/two-fo...

Programme for Government 2025-26 www.gov.scot/publications...

An illustration of how FPP goes from sandbag to springboard - Reform votes and seats in different councils: Oxfordshire: 18% vote, 2% seats Cambridgeshire: 23% vote, 16% seats Devon: 27% vote, 30% seats Leicestershire: 33% vote, 46% seats Derbyshire: 37% vote, 66% seats