I received a letter today (well it arrived much earlier, but I have only just gotten round to reading it). It was from the Scottish General Secretary of the Labour Party, Colin Smyth. In it he was spouting a number of reasons why today is the day that I should return to the Labour Party as a member.
I once was a member of the Labour Party. However, in January I was so fed up with the conduct of senior Labour MPs and MSPs as well as the way in which the party was treating the country I decided to resign from the party.
Here are some quotes from the letter:
I know we have asked you to rejoin before, and I appreciate tat you may have had disagreements with the party in the past which lead to your decision to leave. But now is the time to come back to Labour.
Yes, Mr Smyth, it is good of you to say that you appreciate this (although the labour party is so self-indulgent it doesn’t actually believe such things). However, the reasons for my leaving the party have yet to be sorted.
I’m sure you understand how important the outcome of this choice wil be. This is why we want as many former members of the Labour Party to come back to help shape the future – because I know that you still share our fundamental principles of social justice, fairness, equality and decency.
Yes, Mr Smyth I still hold these principles. My reasons for leaving Labour were that the party no longer appear to hold and believe in these fundamental principles. When you do I will return.
Karadzic refuses to plead
29 August 2008 at 14:15 | In Criminal Justice, Criminal Law, Human Rights, Legal System | Leave a CommentFormer Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has refused to enter a plea to charges of war crimes at the UN tribunal in The Hague.
In accordance with the rules of the tribunal, the judge has entered a “not guilty” plea to each of the 11 charges on the indictment on Karadzic’s behalf.
There shall be a further hearing on 17 September 2008.
Blood and Guts
29 August 2008 at 04:04 | In Health, Random | 2 Comments
I’ve been unable to sleep tonight, so I decided to have a look at what was on BBC iPlayer. I clicked onto BBC Four and have just enjoyed 90 minutes of interesting programming. One programme, lasting an hour, in particular was one of the most remarkable and interesting television programmes that I have seen in quite sometime.
Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery focused on the historical development of cardiac surgery which has resulted in us being able to perform complex operations in the most remarkable of circumstances. I was amazed by just how far we have come in such a short time in the ability to perform complex cardiac surgery. I was not aware that cardiac surgery was such a recent medical achievement. I had just assumed that it was a lot older given the history of other forms of surgery.
The programmed aired on Wednesday night and can be seen on BBC iPlayer for one week after it was originally aired. I’d recommend it to anyone who can stomach it. The next episode in the series will focus on transplants and I will be sure to watch it. Fantastically interesting stuff!
The other programme I watched was Doctors to be: 20 years on: The surgeon’s Tale. This programme caught up with a consultant surgeon who the BBC had first met when he embarked upon his studies as a medical student. It was an interesting 30 minutes watching his story as he worked his way up to the top of his chosen specialisation. Again, an interesting one to watch!
There is another programme on the BBC Four iPlayer site that I am keen to watch, and will do once I have had some sleep. I am now starting to feel tired (not before time, I’ve been up for 18.5 hours having only had five hours sleep last night). The programme is listed as Medical Mavericks: Series 1: Anaesthesia. The description on the BBC iPlayer website is as follows:
Dr Michael Mosley explores the ways in which pioneering doctors laid the foundations of modern medicine by experimenting on themselves. In charting the development of pain-free surgery, he starts with Humphrey Davy, who inhaled up to 50 pints of laughing gas a day and yet missed its true significance. Conman-turned-dentist Dr William Morton slept with a skeleton by night and experimented with ether by day, while James Young Simpson’s enthusiasm for chloroform led to many deaths.
Again, another truly interesting sounding programme!
Lockerbie Appeal development
29 August 2008 at 01:19 | In Criminal Justice, Criminal Law, Scots Law | Leave a Comment
It has emerged that Scottish police failed to disclose evidence to the defence team of Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi. This evidence compromises the positive identification of the man who has been convicted of the terrible disaster to hit Scotland on 21 December 1988. It has been revealed that a key witness, Tony Gauci, had see a picture of Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi under the headline “who planted the bomb?” only four days before he made the identification.
The prosecution case was that al-Megrahi took the bomb, wrapped in clothes bought from a shop in Malta, to the island’s Luqa airport, where it was checked in and then transferred onto Pan Am flight 103. Mr Gauci owned the shop where the police say the garments were bought. Mr Gauci said that he had seen al-Megrahi in his shop some weeks before the bombing.
It was revealed that the police knew that Mr Gauci had seen al-Megrahi’s photograph under this headline and, contrary to the rules of disclosure did not disclose this to the defence.
Gary McKinnon loses Strasbourg appeal
28 August 2008 at 13:29 | In Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Legal System | Leave a CommentThe Glasgow born computer expert, Gary McKinnon, who hacked into US military computers has today lost his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights sitting in Strasbourg. McKinnon had sought a delay to his extradition pending a full hearing at the Court. He argues that the extradition breaches his Human Rights. The court disagreed.
Mckinnon will now be extradited to the United States of America within two weeks where he could face possible charges under anti-terrorism laws and a period of imprisonment that could be greater than his entire life span. It has transpired that McKinnon has recently been diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome and his solicitor is to attempt to get the case heard in the United Kingdom.
His solicitor, Karen Todner said:
The offences for which our client’s extradition is sought were committed on British soil and we maintain that any prosecution ought to be carried out by the appropriate British authorities.
Our client now faces the prospect of prosecution and imprisonment thousands of miles away from his family in a country in which he has never set foot.
The American authorities have warned that unless Mr McKinnon co-operates and that without a gulty plea the case may be treated as one of terrorism opening him up to a very long prison sentence.
I have, in the past, made my feelings on this case abundantly clear. They can, for those who have not already read them, be read here.
New Phone
27 August 2008 at 23:16 | In Personal, Random | Leave a CommentWell, I was in need of a new phone following my old one being stolen (the temporary one I’m using isn’t that great in that it keeps cuttin out during calls). So, today (having a day off work) I went out to the shops and bought a new phone.
I managed to get quite a good deal, paying only £60 for a phone costing £119.99! They were already offering 20% of the phone as part of a special offer and I haggled the other £40 off. Watching trashy daytime TV sometimes has its positives!
14% of Scottish 15 and 16 year olds self-harm
27 August 2008 at 15:41 | In Health, Random | Leave a CommentA study by The University of Stirling has uncovered some distrubing statistics in the field of teenage self-harm. Their study suggests that 14% of 15 and 16 year olds in Scotland self-harm (a figure much higher than the official one). Now, this figure was going to be higher as the offical one comes out of the numbers of people who present at a doctor following self-harm. However, 14% is a very worrying figure indeed.
The study revealed that 15 and 16 year olds who were concerned abouttheir sexuality, history of sexual abuse or those who knew a family member who had self-harmed were five times more likely to hurt themselves The study revealed that high levels of anxiety and low levels of self-esteem are key factors.
The risk of a person taking their own life is 60 to 100 times higher in a person who has perviosul self-harmed when compared with a person who has not.
These are worrying statistics indeed.
Regrets
26 August 2008 at 00:28 | In Personal | Leave a CommentThis post has been inspired by The Uni Looney who was asking what people regretted. I posted a response there about one of my biggest regrets…allowing my Guidance Teacher at School to completely destroy my self esteem.
The first three or four years of secondary school for me were very tough. I was bullied by my peers. The bullying was so bad that the Police were involved on a number of occasions following these people assaulting me, on one occasion to the point where I needed to go to Accident and Emergency. Of course, at that age, police involvement made everything worse as it gave them yet another “reason” to bully me.
At the same time my guidance teacher was making me feel stupid and intellectually inferior. I’ll admit that I’m not the smartest person in the world, but I’m not stupid either. However, the way she presented things and said things made me feel as though I was. My grades started to slip in my second year of Secondary School and this gave her more cause to make me feel stupid. However, I was missing a great amount of school due to severe asthma attacks (bad enough for me to be taken to A&E by Ambulance on blue lights on a number of occasions). This of course had a severe impact on my performance and attainment. Help ad support from her was not forthcoming and she reluctantly started to support me when my parents started complaining to the head of year.
As I moved into third year the bullying was becoming more intense. My grades were starting to improve again as my health was improving and thus I was attending school much more often. However, despite my grades improving she still found ways in which to make me feel stupid. I excelled in Business, Administration and Modern Studies throughout my third and fourth year and my results in English and Mathematics began to improve as well, although not to great levels. I was still missing some school due to my asthma and in particular chemistry suffered. At this time in my life I had little interest in pursuing a career in the Law. I wanted to be a Doctor. However, as I was underperforming in science my guidance teacher started attacking my aims to become a doctor and I abandoned them in favour of a career in Teaching and then the Police.
My standard Grade results were pretty average (although far below the school average). This affected what I could take in my fifth year. In my fifth year I took two subjects at Higher (Modern Studies and Business Management) and three at Intermediate two level (French, Maths and English). My Guidance teacher ended up being my teacher for French, which meant I had 6 hours a week with her. French was never a strong point of mine and I only took it because I was forced to (I had wanted to sit Higher Modern Studies, Business Management, Administration and Accounting and Finance along with Intermediate 2 English but the school would not allow it)
My fifth year results were not too bad and I achieved AA at higher. Moving into sixth year I was considering a career in Law at this point and was looking at university courses. In my sixth year I was undertaking Higher English, Higher History and Advanced Higher Modern Studies. When I had my careers interview with my guidance teacher during the UCAS process she looked at my choices and said “I think you’re setting your sights very high and that maybe you should consider this” at this point she gave me a college prospectus for the local college to go and study media (something that was of no interest to me at all). I had many a battle over my university choices with her. She even attempted to prevent me from going to university open days. However, that didn’t work as all sixth years were entitled to attend two open days of their choice.
Throughout the final year she continually told me that I’d never get into University let alone to study Law. I began to doubt myself and when my offers came through I doubted myself so much that I nearly rejected all of the offers that I received.
We had a temporary librarian during my sixth year and she was utterly appalled at the way my guidance teacher spoke to me. She told me that she felt my guidance teacher was speaking to me like an animal and treating me like smoothing she would wipe from the bottom of her shoe. It was my Modern Studies teacher (who I am still in contact with) and the temporary librarian who persuaded me not to reject my offers.
So, between the bullying and constantly being made to feel that I’m stupid by the teacher responsible for guiding me through school and onto my chosen career path, I left secondary school with very little self-esteem. I had little confidence in my ability; I became very shy and quiet (the complete opposite of what I was when I started secondary school in August 2000).
I’m not saying that the only reason I’m the way I am today is because of her and the people who bullied me. I allowed them to destroy my self-esteem and in my mind I’m to blame as well.
My teenage years were particularly unhappy outside of school as well. The relationship between my father and me was (and still is) a very volatile one. We constantly argued often coming to physical blows. Although, things have improved there is still a lot of tension between us.
Anyway, that’s enough of that. I’m sure you don’t want to hear about all that stuff! I never really intended this blog to be a personal one, but over time the personal posts have grown in number. It was initially meant to be a blog based on my political opinions and my views on legal stories. Isn’t it strange just how things pan out?
Domestic Violence…time for equal treatment of victims
25 August 2008 at 06:06 | In Politics, Random | Leave a CommentAn Article in The Scotsman caught my attention. It reported the blatant disregard for male victims of domestic violence and the descrimination against male victims when compare with female victims by the SCottish Government. We are all aware that there are many dedicated services for female victims of domestic violence. However, in Scotland there are no dedicated services for male victims.
The MSP for Dufermlane West, who has been helping to raise awarness of this outrageous situation, was told by the Minister for Communites and Education that there was no need for such a service as it was covered by things like victim support.
Whenever we hear about domestic violence it is more often than not a female victim with a male perpetrator. However, domestic violence happens in all sorts of relationships with all sorts of victims. My Uncles marriage broke down because he was phsyically attacked by his wife on a near nightly basis.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said it took “a zero tolerance approach to all forms of domestic abuse” but recognised its “gender specific nature”.
One woman, Jackie Walls, is trying to set up Mens Aid, a charity who will provide specific services such as refuge and counselling for male victims of domestic violence. She said:
They deserve the same support as women.
How right she is.
Concerning disclosures
24 August 2008 at 00:16 | In Criminal Justice, Criminal Law, Legal System, Scots Law | Leave a CommentIain Nisbet over at Absolvitor: Scots Law Online writes about a very concerning disclosure. He reveals that William Beck has posted on his blog about how he obtained from the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) the names and address of jurors.
It would appear that the SCCRC have communicated to Mr Beck that they have acted properly in releasing these details to him. The original post on Mr Beck’s blog is well worth a read and Mr Beck has also published the list of jurors that he receieved (link available from his blog) on the internet.
If this news is indeed true, which it appears it might be, it is very concerning indeed. How is a jury supposed to function properly, and return a true and just verdict, when their names and addresses could be revealed to the very person whose guilt or innocence they must decide? It undermines the criminal justice system if this is to happen. A jury may well be influenced based on a fear that they may later be subjected to a revenge attack should they convict the person sitting in the dock – this could cause serious problems in cases which involve violence as this fear may be greatly increased.
The Justice Secretary must address parliament with a statement about this and ensure that if the law does allow for the publication of these details that it is swiftly changed.
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