Legerwood:
England and its imploding justice system.
The article was on the front page of the on-line Guardian for most of the day and then was replaced by this grudging piece about the Scottish Parliament raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/nov/04/scotland-stops-treating-under-12s-criminals
While the article castigated Scotland for not doing more, as reports usually do, it fails to mention that in England the age of criminal responsibility is still 10 years old. In fairness it has to be said that there was a Bill going through HoC to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years but it was lost because of the GE.Then there was this in the Guardian a few days ago:
England and its imploding justice system
Then there was this in the Guardian a few days ago:
England and its imploding justice system.
The article above was on the front page of the on-line Guardian for most of that day and then was replaced by this grudging piece about the Scottish Parliament raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/nov/04/scotland-stops-treating-under-12s-criminals
While the article castigated Scotland for not doing more, as these types of articles usually do, it fails to mention that in England the age of criminal responsibility is still 10 years old. In fairness it has to be said that there was a Bill going through HoC to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years but it was lost because of the GE.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Hi Legerwood, John, et al – interesting that the Grauniad, even grudgingly, acknowledged that the Scottish Parlt took action to introduce the increased age of criminal responsibility. Pretty unusual for anything other than ‘Scotland is rubbish’ to get through their mega-filters.
Curiously, beeb Scotland also seemed to lower their screening filters today – albeit, again, in a distinctly ‘grudgingly’ toned article on the website. (I felt, unusually, that the GMS radio piece was allowed to be a bit more expansive on the topic than the website). The coverage concerned the welcome developments which the SNP Scottish Govt has managed to shepherd through, persuading and cajoling multiple competing operators to introduce compatible travel smartcards.
Given the nightmare-ishly fragmented transport economy Scotland has inherited thanks to Westminster mismanagement over three centuries, it sounds as if the SNP Scottish Govt has worked a minor miracle in achieving this step forward in operational practices. Much more to be done – but a very welcome first step. Day by day – further preparing Scotland for an Indy future. Link and snippets below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-50331257?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scotland/scotland_business&link_location=live-reporting-story
Smartcards for public transport are now “smarter than ever” – but what does that mean, and how will it affect commuters?
There are 16 different smartcards in use in Scotland, and until today they only worked on one mode of transport.
If you wanted to travel from Edinburgh to the West End of Glasgow, you could use a Citysmart card to get the tram to Waverley train station, a Scotrail card to Queen Street and then a Bramble card for the subway to Hillhead.
Now, you should be able to use one card for all those journeys.
Transport Secretary Michael Matheson explained: “Part of the challenge we’ve had in Scotland is that we have so many different operators. So for example, on the bus network alone, we have over 200 different operators, many of whom are using different forms of technology.”
This is about bringing together the different bus, train, subway and ferry companies to make sure they’re using the same technology.
It does mean Scotland’s fragmented transport system has become less fragmented, which could make future changes easier to manage.
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When does a trickle become a stream? – labour Scottish sub-branch have now lost their 3rd Westminster candidate in 2 months. That’s a pretty impressive rate of attrition. Links below:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/general-election-2019-scottish-labour-drops-terf-image-candidate-1-5041345
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18022717.scottish-labour-loses-third-election-candidate-following-anti-semitism-row/
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17792084.scottish-labour-loses-westminster-candidate-top-seat/
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