CABINET MEETS FOR FIRST TIME
The new Government’s cabinet will hold its first business meeting of the new Parliamentary session later today.
Tackling sectarianism is high on the agenda, with Justice Secretary Kenny McAskill will be calling for tough action on those who peddle sectarian hatred over the internet. While you’re at it, Kenny, can you do something about the anti-Scottish bile posted on several English newspaper sites?
SUPREME COURT DECISION IS VITAL FOR FUTURE OF SCOTS LAW
A hugely significant case for Scotland’s legal system will take place later today at the UK Supreme Court in London.
The creation of the last Labour Government in Westminster, the very existence of the Supreme Court is a threat to Scots Law, according to some lawyers. It has already caused havoc by ruling that people accused in Scotland had the right to immediate access to a lawyer – a case that would have been lost anyway at the European Court since Scotland’s detention rules were so out of step with Human Rights law.
Today’s case is markedly different, however. High-profile murderer Nat Fraser, jailed in 2003 for the killing of his wife Arlene whose body has never been found, is appealing to the Supreme Court about evidence which he says the police withheld from his trial.
Fraser has been through the entire Scottish appeals system and is also threatening to take a case on human rights grounds to the European Court.
If the Supreme Court overrules the Scottish judges who found against Fraser, expect a major controversy over what this means for the supposedly separate and sovereign Scottish legal system.
MORE AMAZON JOBS
The BBC is reporting this morning that Amazon are to create 500 full- time and 450 temporary jobs at a new customer services centre in Edinburgh, adding to the 950 jobs already announced by the company at Gourock.
MEDIA DIGEST
Most papers heavily feature the misery caused by the volcanic ash cloud which closed Scottish airports and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights – Pain in the Ash, as The Sun describes it.
The Scotsman and The Herald also feature the extensive damage to Scotland’s fruit crops caused by the high winds.
The Press and Journal goes with the final march of RAF personnel from Kinloss air base through the town of Forres. Some 3,000 people turned out in the gales to say goodbye.
The tabloids concern themselves with the activities of new Rangers owner Craig Whyte who has sacked chairman Alastair Johnstone and board member Paul Murray, and suspended the club’s chief executive, Martin Bain, and finance director Donald Macintyre – not surprising, given the board’s less than positive comments about him. ‘Whyte of the Long Knives’ says the Daily Record, which proves there are still some decent headline writers around.
