A government Bill, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (‘LASPO’), now going through parliament aims to replace the infamous system of Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection or IPPs, a legacy of...
I propose the following basic elements in a new constructive policy on Scotland for the Labour Party: 1. Scottish independence, just as much as devo max, will (or would) require the collaboration of the...
In the last few days I have posted a couple of pieces about the Scottish Question (here and here), most recently quoting a prize example of sub-standard journalism in a Sunday Times article purporting...
While we are on the subject of the Scottish referendum, I should announce the result of the competition for the most obtuse, confused and misleading contribution to the analysis of the possible consequences of...
Unless one is a fanatical Scot, it’s impossible to read the whole torrent of comments on the new-found Scottish Question, so selection is unavoidable. Actually, it’s only necessary to read one blog post and...
The UK political parties have suddenly woken up and discovered an imminent threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom: the Scottish SNP government’s pledge to hold a referendum on independence for Scotland within...
Immediately after the nocturnal UK veto and decision on a new non-EU Eurozone agreement in the early hours of 9 December, it was difficult to assess what it all meant when we had so...
The prime minister’s and his EU colleagues’ proclaimed purpose at the EU summit on Thursday was to save the euro and the eurozone. There was already broad agreement on how to achieve this. The...
An editorial in today’s Guardian and an accompanying column by Simon Jenkins state with admirable vigour the unanswerable case against the vicious system of Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPPs). Both should be compulsory...
Why is the government persisting in policies that strangle demand in the economy instead of boosting it? Faced with a bad financial crisis, a paralytic economy and no growth, the coalition government’s immediate instincts...