David Leask

Former Soviet media executive among Russia’s suspicious suicides The long time head of the Soviet newspaper Pravda has been found dead in Moscow, heightening concerns over a pattern of similar deaths

Former Soviet media executive among Russia’s suspicious suicides

www.thetimes.com/article/b300...

Star law student led anti-Islamic chants at migrant hotel protest

www.thetimes.com/article/dd9d...

Irregular or unlawful entry and arrival (accessible)

This is one of those occasions when it’s worth taking the time to check what the law actually says (cos it’s interesting and pertinent). www.gov.uk/government/p...

Reform leads Labour as Scotland backs mass deportation of illegal migrants Reform ahead of Labour in Scotland, research for The Sunday Times finds, as voters back calls by Nigel Farage’s party for action to bring down migration

Reform leads Labour as Scotland backs mass deportation of illegal migrants

www.thetimes.com/article/d76f...

Poll predicts clear Reform majority and historic Labour defeat

www.thetimes.com/article/0ae4...

Reform UK's ex-Wales leader Nathan Gill admits pro-Russia bribery Nathan Gill admits eight charges of bribery while being a Member of the European Parliament.

Putin’s pals bribed Reform MEP. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Nicolas Sarkozy to be jailed for five years over Gaddafi money The former French president criticised the judiciary, which he accused of hatred towards him, after he was found guilty of criminal conspiracy

Nicolas Sarkozy to be jailed for five years over Gaddafi money

www.thetimes.com/article/b3a5...

Scotland has ‘nothing to show’ for 20 years talking about independence The new Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander says the country has gone backwards under the SNP but wants to build a new relationship with Holyrood

Scotland has ‘nothing to show’ for 20 years talking about independence

www.thetimes.com/article/8fae...

Revealed: the British ex-soldier accused of killing Agnes Wanjiru Thirteen years after the young mother’s body was found in a septic tank, Kenya has finally issued an arrest warrant — for ex-combat medic Robert James Purkiss

Revealed: the British ex-soldier accused of killing Agnes Wanjiru

www.thetimes.com/article/39b9...

How nationalists are keeping Indy dream alive with cake and tea A network of IndyHubs has sprung up in cities and towns across Scotland with volunteers taking a softly-softly approach in a bid to win support

How nationalists are keeping Indy dream alive with cake and tea.

www.thetimes.com/article/4567...

Look at all those treats in today’s Alba (in The Times Scotland).

Meet boxing’s 79-year-old TikTok star followed by Usyk and 50 Cent Frank Gilfeather has become an online hit via his training videos with more than 1m followers on social media — and has been told he has saved lives

Meet boxing’s 79-year-old TikTok star followed by Usyk and 50 Cent

www.thetimes.com/article/a602...

How talking to foreigners can land you in jail in Putin’s Russia At least 100 people have been charged in a Cold War-style crackdown on associating with westerners brought in after the invasion of Ukraine

How talking to foreigners can land you in jail in Putin’s Russia

www.thetimes.com/article/a2eb...

Boss who leaked medical records of David Goodwillie rape victim avoids jail Tony McNally, who was the player’s manager at Glasgow United, has been given a community payback order after causing ‘significant distress’ to Denise Clair

Boss who leaked medical records of David Goodwillie rape victim avoids jail

www.thetimes.com/article/4c9f...

SNP minister ‘grabbed ex-Tory leader’ in seagulls row Jamie Hepburn is said to have shown ‘violent, threatening and intimidating behaviour’ towards Douglas Ross

SNP minister ‘grabbed ex-Tory leader’ in seagulls row

www.thetimes.com/article/370a...

You get the idea. Anyway, I’m not sure how we can discourage legal, political and media commentators from making sweeping and inaccurate claims about other countries.

It’s definitely not just in your head. Indeed, a prominent KC is on X making that very point.

In California they only have two verdicts but acquitted persons can petition for a declaration of factual innocence. oag.ca.gov/sites/all/fi...

Israel is the most fascinating eg: where courts have a whole range of verdicts, including a finding that a crime did not take place.

So a number of jurisdictions have what academics call “differentiated acquittals”. This was touched on in some of the academic work that helped inform the current reform process. eprints.gla.ac.uk/250417/1/250...

Equally a lot has been said by both sides of the “not proven” debate about the uniqueness of Scotland’s bastard verdict. Well, no system is exactly the same as any other. But is it true that Scotland is the only country with more than one acquittal verdict? Not really, no.

We are not talking about knuckleheads here. Some very well respected advocates said some weird, weird stuff. I remember one excellent KC saying even Putin wouldn’t scrap juries (when Russia’s hard man was actively introducing them - perhaps cos he thinks they’re easier to manipulate than judges).

Plea for calm over non-jury rape trial plan A leading legal scholar has warned against “hyperbolic” criticism of SNP proposals to scrap juries for rape trials.James Chalmers, the regius professor of law a

This has been a striking feature of the debate on the bill that finally passed last week. At one point - when the govt was considering some judge-only rape trials - some solicitors bizarrely claimed “no civilised country” did this.
www.thetimes.com/article/cb11...

Scrapping not proven verdicts ‘erodes distinctiveness of Scots law’ Campaigners hail the end of Scotland’s three-verdict system but some lawyers say reform could lead to miscarriages of justice

I’m not remotely qualified to pass judgement on verdict reforms in Scotland BUT I can’t help once again noticing that many of Scotland’s legal commentators have this weird blind spot on how other systems actually work.
www.thetimes.com/article/d9a5...

John Swinney faces SNP backlash for going to Trump banquet The first minister is trying to court warm relations with the US president, arguing it is in Scotland’s best interests, but other politicians have stayed away

John Swinney faces SNP backlash for going to Trump banquet

www.thetimes.com/article/aeec...

I’m at the age when I’m still routinely distressed by the idea of a store where everything costs as much as £1.

Statement from @postguild.bsky.social on the firing of Karen Attiah:

The publisher leading the literary fightback against Putin’s censors The dissident publishing house Freedom Letters distributes books banned by the Kremlin. Its founder says the crackdown is a sign of the regime’s weakness

The publisher leading the literary fightback against Putin’s censors

www.thetimes.com/article/d040...

Sorry, it would be unethical for me to get drawn in to a discussion about specific anonymous sources. But I would say there is nothing unusual about anonymous letters for publication - they have existed since the public press began and there are a variety of ways for verifying their credibility.

2/2 Edi Uni is a big institution and definitely contains scholars and staff of a variety of views, including academics who are known to be critical of progressive thinking and research about race, empire, gender and all sorts of other things. Some of these people are known, some, evidently, are not.