A judicial review case in the Court of Session asking: has the Foreign Secretary unlawfully delayed issuing a decision on the request of two Palestinians for consular assistance to leave Gaza with a view to their entering the UK? www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/tgbbrv...

People who gave themselves permission to identify complainers in the Salmond case have already been jailed for between 6 & 8 months for contempt of court. To suppose these consequences couldn't be visited on you for doing the same thing is courageous, but I suggest you don't.

One criminal justice policy from today's Scottish Labour Manifesto. I'm not entirely sure what the "loopholes" in the current legislation are supposed to be. "Disclosing, or threatening to disclose, an intimate photograph or film" is already an offence. www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2016/22/...

Fantasy plans to imprison thousands of people in imaginary prisons isn’t victim-centred or hardline – it’s quackery and charlatanism and should be confronted as such. Today's column on this week's wild Scottish Tory manifesto on criminal justice. www.thenational.scot/politics/260...

'a new Chagos bill is not expected to feature in the King's Speech in mid-May.' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The BBC article doesn't explicitly use the D-word to describe the legal basis of these letters, but it sounds like the care home company may have threatened defamation proceedings against these people, given the reference to "serious harm." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Crispin Odey “forced to accept” that the FT was “likely to succeed in establishing” its public interest defence in defamation case. www.ft.com/content/6966...

The Ted Heath exoneration.

In their 2026 manifesto, the Scottish Tories are effectively proposing to double the Scottish prison population (currently over capacity at 8,000) with precisely no serious proposals for how to pay the capital or revenue cost (roughly £47k per prisoner per year) of doing so.

"Ulti­mately, the elect­or­ate decides what counts, what they care about, and who wins. And they’re entitled to take into account whatever they like – includ­ing your reli­gion." Today's Herald on Sunday / Sunday National bit. www.thenational.scot/politics/259...

One of the more surprising recent paragraphs from the Appeal Court's recent judgment in Sean Kirkup v HM Advocate... www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/mtpd4e...

British citizen who returned to Scotland from South Africa in 2021 after threats faced by his mother fails in attempt to persuade Court of Session he should be treated as "analogous to a refugee" for the purposes of university tuition fees. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/n3nbzc...

Crying out for the Herbert Morrison / Ernest Bevin treatment. When someone suggested to Bevin that Peter Mandelson's grandfather was "his own worst enemy," Bevin responded "not while I'm alive he ain't."

This week, I was in Aberdeen! My first ever visit to the Granite City (potentially a cancellable admission) thanks to the kindly invitation from the team at Aberdeen University Law School to present some of my research on reporting restrictions & scope for reform. A flying but fortifying trip.

Inner House of Court of Session strongly emphasise importance and public interest in upholding legal professional privilege, concluding the Scottish Information Commissioner made "error of law" in ordering Scottish Government disclosure. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/zzgbx5...

<a homophobic joke so outrageous we're not going to tell you what it actually was> must be a holding position for the Daily Record. It's now only a matter of time till we plumb the depths of Baron Offord's patter.

Holyrood's decision not to reform the law on assisted dying leaves us with the status quo - a kind of legal limbo which will add to the store of human suffering, but which is also inconsistent with the explanations given by the majority for opposing legislation. www.thenational.scot/politics/259...

ALT Text: "A lost soul encounters a strange, ursine psychopomp in the desolate fields of purgatory."

Creating a "Scottish Healthcare Reform Commission" (as Reform UK commit to in their Scottish manifesto today) sounds an awful lot like ... establishing a new quango.

AI generated hallucinations make one of their first reported appearances in Scottish litigation. Here involving a party vs party case in Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court where non-existent case-law was cited raising issues of contempt of court. scotcourts.gov.uk/media/tf3nid...

It'd be interesting to know what the legal basis is for anonymising the officers involved here. Looking on the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service website, it doesn't look like any orders have been made under section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act here. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

⚖️ By my reckoning, the final count is 71. Today's Sunday National column on what we now know about the scale and scope of the Post Office Horizon scandal in Scotland. www.thenational.scot/politics/259...

📉 Another crowdfunded judicial review case reaches the Court of Session (www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/money-to-p...). Galloway Without Pylons unsuccessful in attempted planning challenge. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/mm1m0b...

Permission was refused today in the JR of decisions relating to the Chagos Islands: caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/admin/2...

One of the more colourful fraud cases to come out of Scotland in recent years. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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-...

🦋 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...

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.

"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...

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...

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...

Today - I am mostly absolutely shrinking from the dark season.

In one of the more surprising recent sentences from the Gurniad: "there is no suggestion that Veronika’s skills are evidence of the evolution of an ominous new species of super-cow." www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

On what remains a fairly cold and dreich January, rather pleased with the wee tulipiere I was inspired to invest in after my Amsterdam jaunt last November.

⚖️ From the Outer House of the Court of Session, Biffa lose of £51.4 million damages action against Scottish Government over ultimate fate of the Deposit Return scheme. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/heokg3...

⚖️ Crown lose appeal against sentence in case against serial conman Robert Markward. The Appeal Court rejected suggestions the trial judge should have made an order for lifelong restriction. www.scotcourts.gov.uk/media/2tepzu...