I’ve skimmed the above Herald report twice but can find nothing to savour. It’s the vaguest, dullest, front page story I’ve seen in some time but it’s about the above sneery-faced Prof Adam Tomkins, a former Tory MSP, much loved here.

In July 2020, mid-pandemic, he campaigned for the early re-opening of gyms, as in England but contrary to the Scottish Government’s science-based practice to avoid this kind of thing:

During 24 days in Cheonan, South Korea, 112 persons were infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 associated with fitness dance classes at 12 sports facilities. Intense physical exercise in densely populated sports facilities could increase risk for infection. Vigorous exercise in confined spaces should be minimized during outbreaks. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/8/20-0633_article

In March 2024, both the Scotsman and the Herald ran with the notion that the implementation of the SNP’s new Hate Crime law would make extra work for, and confuse, already hard-pressed officers, leading to possible wrongful arrests.

Said who?

Prof Adam Tomkins of Glasgow University, a ‘legal expert’ and ‘former convener of Holyrood’s Justice Committee’ has predicted the new law ‘will lead to a great deal of police time being wasted.’ Is he a real prof? Don’t they wait until the evidence is in from peer-reviewed research? Isn’t that what profs do?

Wait, he was a Holyrood committee convener, so he must have been a politician. The papers don’t say. Wait, we remember, he’s that Tory MSP, elected with only 11.6% in 2016.

Legal expert? On this particular subject? On the GU webpage about him, ‘research interests’:

All areas of public law, but especially constitutional law. https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/law/staff/adamtomkins/#researchinterests

Was there no real expert on policing available?

There was:

Liz Aston is a Professor of Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University and has been the Director of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) since 2018. Her expertise centres on local policing.https://www.sipr.ac.uk/leadership-team/#:~:text=Liz%20Aston%20is%20a%20Professor,intersect%20between%20policing%20and%20drugs.

She looks a bit like one of those younger, well-informed women academics, often accused by ‘gammons’ of being too ‘woke’, but who are not afraid to use the evidence to tell the truth.

Might that be a problem for the Scotsman or the Herald?

Getting back to the union and its members’ interests, they should remember which side their toast is buttered on.

According to the Police Promotion Blog, in 2023, Scotland had 16 615 police officers.

All things being equal, with 10 times the population, England should have 166 150 but has only 139 425 so Scotland has 26 725, 19.2% more pro rata.

With 1.7 times the population of Wales, Scotland should have 13 608 officers but has 16 615, 3 007 or 22.1% more.