HighlandLawyer

It's time of year to re-read "The Dark is Rising" by Susan Cooper; "Hogfather" by Terry Pratchett; and the short story "Overtime" by @npub1dnd…hzjs which is finally out on dead tree, but for years has been available for free at https://reactormag.com/overtime//

2025-12-08 14:44:45 UTC

As it's 20 years since my father died, after a year of him and my mother trying to squeeze into a year as much as they could of what they'd planned for post-retirement decades, a reminder to all - carpe diem: don't let prudence for the future stop you enjoying the things now. Drink the good wine, take up that hobby, meet that friend or relative, go to that place. There's an awful lot of shit happens in the world, and you never know what's around the corner.
Also #FuckCancer

2025-11-18 23:54:59 UTC

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Pretty sure 2019 wasn't 28 years ago yet; it just feels like it.

2025-11-09 09:36:37 UTC

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https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/519/055/496/307/825/original/972036b06f7b625b.png

2025-11-09 09:32:46 UTC

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https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/519/023/242/632/725/original/2ada84589eb84213.jpg

2025-11-09 09:24:01 UTC

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https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/519/010/042/801/616/original/e8b3ad50dbc0e3aa.png

2025-10-25 11:56:08 UTC

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Nope, it's just that most people can't afford it any more. Eating out is a discretionary expenditure, and when people are having to choose between heating & eating, going out for a meal is a real luxury.

2025-10-18 23:35:38 UTC

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"Lords of science, here for all your peer review needs."
"Salivating dog here"

2025-10-16 09:17:05 UTC

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Politically but not legally. They can rely on "we were only following orders, er legislation" and "that is a different jurisdiction" to ignore whatever may or may not happen in Scotland.

2025-10-16 08:38:01 UTC

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Well the police can & do send reports to COPFS stating they don't believe a crime has been committed because it's the PF's job to finally decide; however it could incline the Crown to decide that either no crime has been committed, or that it is not in the public interest to prosecute.

2025-09-25 18:42:51 UTC

Since opinion polls for Scottish independence are now starting consistently to be on the "Yes" side, it's so nice of Sir Keir to introduce a policy almost tailor made for a Scottish civil disobedience campaign against Westminster: a whole UK "Brit Card" mandatory ID app.

2025-08-27 12:35:50 UTC

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Fascist decries rules introduced in aftermath of fascist devastation intended to prevent fascists ever repeating the same thing: what a surprise.

2025-08-27 10:13:19 UTC

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Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights are technically not "binding precedent" as that is understood in Common Law jurisdictions, but are each "decided on their own facts", illustrative of the application of the principles to the particular set of facts (as is usual in Civil Law jurisdictions).
Therefore one does not "follow" them anyway, but takes account of them when considering the interpretation of the rights, just like with legislative text.

2025-08-05 20:05:12 UTC

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Doesn't matter: we're all Jock Tamson's bairns. If they want to come here and be law abiding residents, why shouldn't they?

2025-08-05 17:09:39 UTC

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Not even a skin colour thing; the mere effort of immigration filters out those who will make an effort from those who won't. What about all those UK labourers who went to Europe for work in the '80s as soon as free movement came in- they even made a popular UK TV sitcom about it. Then the Polish & other E. European workers who move to UK when their countries joined the EU (until chased out by Brexit, leaving shortages of skilled workers)

2025-08-05 16:58:57 UTC

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But free movement of labour would make market forces work for the benefit of the masses, while free movement of capital reserves those benefits to the few. So obviously you need to stoke up xenophobia to justify strict immigration policies.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/977/196/582/100/899/original/dbffda76ee7680e4.jpg

2025-08-05 15:47:57 UTC

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Economic migrants who "get on their bike", are willing leave their home & travel around the world, learn English, and retrain to get a better job & earn more money for their family, while doing any rubbish job to survive in the meantime? Why are they not "deserving cases" to be allowed into the country- it's what the govt has been telling us for decades that we should be doing.

2025-07-19 15:55:34 UTC

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There are about 30 million residential properties in the UK, so £38,000 million gives around £1200 per property; that would pay for a lot of renewables. Like solar pv for a third to half of all homes. How does that match up in terms of power generated?

2025-07-17 02:18:19 UTC

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Because the blood clots, so is better made into black pudding.

2025-07-11 13:41:11 UTC

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Old joke:
Why did Robin Hood steal from the rich?
Because poor people have no money.
Perhaps the current adminstration could meditate on that.

2025-07-04 12:11:21 UTC

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Ultimately no referendum in the UK can be "legally binding". Even if Westminster passes an Act which states a referendum will be "legally binding", after the vote it can still pass another Act to cancel any "binding" effect.
What a referendum can do is demonstrate the strength of public feeling & therefore the political implications. The Strathclyde Water Referendum is a perfect example where the near unanimity of voters scared off the proposed privatisation of water in Scotland.

2025-06-12 10:21:55 UTC

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Ditto in northern Scotland: 4 hours of gloamin, bright enough to read outside. We pay for it in December though.
(This picture around midnight in June)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/669/868/753/289/315/original/88d6b4cb9b4d1a6f.jpg

2025-06-09 12:06:39 UTC

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Final line of that article is informative to a degree, but the actual deal in Scotland was 4.25% in 2025-26, then 3.75% 2026-27, *with a guarantee that increases will be at least 1% above inflation in each year*
https://www.rcn.org.uk/scotland/get-involved/pay-and-other-campaigns/fair-pay-for-nursing-scotland

2025-06-08 10:18:03 UTC

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OTOH, if you continue to repress the economy with austerity so that it contracts, you could manage to make current spending be 5% of GDP... 🤔

2025-06-05 11:42:38 UTC

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Beyond removing stigma, it also gives a collegiate effect; the standard is that everyone eats together, in a shared mealtime, from the same menu. No need for some to take packed meals, or go elsewhere for lunch. It builds a more unified community.

2025-06-05 10:29:02 UTC

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Or she could copy Scotland, and make school meals free to all primary school children, with no means testing. #FeedTheBairns

2025-05-23 12:14:56 UTC

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The correct response would have been "Sorry to see you go. Don't forget to transfer all your regulated credit agreements to a UK authorised lender before you go, or they'll all be unenforceable & give the borrowers a windfall"

2025-05-02 13:25:44 UTC

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Counterpoint: isn't it because they believe in light of the recent decision of Terfs v ScotGov at the Supreme Court, that the bill as currently conceived would be weaponised agains trans people?
Agree it's disappointing though: almost as if it proves that devolution is insufficient to express the democratic will of the Scottish people.

2025-04-25 10:46:25 UTC

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Well banks charging as much, or more, for business cash deposits as for card payments incentivises business to retain cash & use it for purchases. Which leads to an ever increasing pool of cash held by legitimate businesses which doesn't get banked; that's even before you get into businesses which prefer cash to under-report turnover for tax reasons and illegitimate business (or even legitimate business which falls under financial service providers "morality clause" exclusions)

2025-04-16 11:32:51 UTC

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Re today's case, more precisely you are whatever you were assigned at birth, regardless of facts. Don't forget to take your birth certificate with you to the public toilets.

2025-04-10 15:45:39 UTC

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If rights are not universal, they are privileges.
If anyone is exempt from the Rule of Law, then you no longer have the Rule of Law.

2025-04-05 15:02:42 UTC

Noticing an increase in websites adding a data paywall i.e. you can either choose to be a subscriber & pay money, or you can choose to pay in data by accepting tracking & "personalised advertisements". Presumably because they aren't paid enough for un-personalised adverts.
Would handy if those posting links would flag both types of paywall.

2025-03-28 20:03:40 UTC

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But you don't need to contaminate your perfectly pure drinking water with fluoride if your national health service has a programme of applying fluoride varnish to childrens' teeth at school. /s

2025-03-13 13:15:49 UTC

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Delete "introduce", replace with "reinforce".

2025-03-03 09:05:26 UTC

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If they need a model, they could look at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2012/9/contents

2025-02-28 00:56:28 UTC

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Adam Smith is often misrepresented, often by those who've never read his works but merely quote snippets.
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
~ Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

2025-01-23 16:38:09 UTC

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All hail the tartan tricranial sugar toad!
Now explain the relevance as to whether it exists or not.

2025-01-15 19:25:10 UTC

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William Bros are switching most of their beers to gluten free, still ongoing though
https://williamsbrosbrew.com/collections/gluten-free

2025-01-09 13:53:35 UTC

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In the current circumstances the UK govt could easily create "growth" of the economy by addressing the massive poverty created over past decades by govt policy.

2025-01-01 15:15:59 UTC

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Historically at various times during the C20th "the state" provided milk, cod liver oil, and/or orange juice/vitamin c to children. All those were removed in the latter end of the century under excuse that vitamin deficiencies were a thing of the past & it was therefore an unnecessary expense when parents could afford to provide a healthy well-balanced diet to their own children.

2024-12-27 16:51:33 UTC

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Power rests with the wealthy when you let it. If the majority unite against it, the wealthy suddenly have no power (or wealth). Therefore the wealthy require to prevent the majority from uniting against them one way or another. One is to keep everyone comfortable & with a potential route for individuals to become wealthy. Another is divide & rule; the failure mode of that is revolution.

2024-12-24 19:41:03 UTC

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Likewise "A bheil Gàidhlig agad?" or "Ĉu vi aŭdis la vortojn de nia moŝto kaj savinto, Doktoro Zamenhof?"

2024-12-18 09:20:13 UTC

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"Father of five with eight grandchildren" per the article

2024-12-18 09:08:46 UTC

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Pretty sure a groceries price index would show much higher inflation rate than that. Irrelevant to BoE perhaps but definitely relevant to most ordinary people trying to scrape by.

2024-12-18 09:01:30 UTC

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Technically not eligible for a Darwin because it was one of his associates who actually shot the bear, not himself.
But certainly a "live by the rifle, die by the rifle" incident.

2024-12-16 13:00:05 UTC

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Here's what I wrote about (Scottish) Legal Aid rates in 2012 - things haven't improved since.
https://highlandlawyer.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/a-living-wage-from-legal-aid-the-tale-of-petunia-perfect/

2024-12-15 20:37:38 UTC

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But where do you buy it now that ThinkGeek are gone?

2024-12-15 14:36:15 UTC

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That's "take back control of our boarders", i.e. have total control over everyone who lives within the land they personally own. Not even Victorian values they're promoting now, it's full on feudalism.

2024-12-14 14:38:47 UTC

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The Spartans were Marxists?

2024-12-11 21:07:41 UTC

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"Unlawful" is doing the heavy lifting there. Bearing in mind that historically many mass killings, ("mass murder" in colloquial use) were completely lawful by the domestic law of the state perpetrating them, whether or not they were subsequently held unlawful in international law.

2024-12-05 01:38:31 UTC

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Current politics has killed satire because the satirists can't dream up anything more extreme than the politicians are already doing.

2024-11-22 10:53:41 UTC

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Luke 17:2 "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."

2024-11-19 19:34:00 UTC

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No mention of TB in those stats; it was massively reduced by pasturisation of milk, though of course vaccination then reduced it further.

2024-11-19 16:26:16 UTC

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Skynet says "Gotta catch them all"

2024-11-19 12:17:11 UTC

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In Victorian times, vast crowds of people would gather outside shipyards, etc every morning to be selected for casual labour; those who were lucky enough to be picked got a days work, the others didn't.
Modern law & technology has managed to reproduce that effect, without the disadvantage of having poor people hanging around outside your business.

2024-11-18 15:29:23 UTC

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Then there's another medical condition, which make the desire to sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" be only a whim away, a whim away, a whim away, a whim away...

2024-11-12 21:27:31 UTC

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I would be delighted if this pushed the Daily Fail to launch a campaign for an adequate & robust Legal Aid system to allow everyone full access to the courts while making "no win, no fee" arrangement completely redundant. Not going to hold my breath though.

2024-10-30 09:46:25 UTC

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They also have a map showing where the compensated slaveowners lived
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/maps/britain/#zoom=6&lng=-3.889160&lat=54.699234

2024-10-28 15:02:28 UTC

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Certainly there are various continua as to effectiveness & application of morality in the operation of law, but the fundamental binary between rule of & rule by law is whether the intention is that law exists to equally protect and benefit *everyone* within a society, or to protect and benefit *some people* within that society (regardless of whether "some" is a mere handful or a majority).
A right which isn't universal is only privilege.

2024-10-28 14:12:19 UTC

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The technical distinction is the rule *of* law versus rule *by* law.

2024-10-26 17:32:12 UTC

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At this stage it's unlikely that Westminster will play fair. OTOH if 60%+ of Scotland actively demanded independence, there's sod all Westminster could do about it. They could declare martial law, but decades of cuts have left the armed forces too depleted to properly implement it, they'd only be able to control select locations.
On the 3rd hand, if enough English voters get fed up about it, they could demand Scotland goes out, similar to Czechoslovakia

2024-10-26 16:54:30 UTC

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It requires a clear democratic mandate; a referendum agreed with Westminster would be the "gold standard", & could give independence on 50%+1 of the vote. Another method, like a de facto referendum in election, would need to show 60%+ support for independence to be accepted internationally over the objections of Westminster.

2024-10-22 15:31:33 UTC

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The exact same standard as for everyone else.
Where the police should have an advantage is that it should be easier to prove the facts- corroborating witnesses, bodycams, recorded communications, etc. all the things provided to let them do their job of proving if & when *anyone* is breaking the law.

2024-10-22 15:26:47 UTC

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That is because the criminal justice system, in fact the whole court system, has been underfunded & under-resourced for decades. Due in no small part to govt demands that the court system should be "self-funding". No, it should not- a swift & fair justice system is fundamental to the rule of law: justice delayed is justice denied.

2024-10-22 15:20:34 UTC

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We don't have the death penalty, so police shouldn't be killing people willy-nilly, regardless of who it is. The test for the police using lethal force should be the same as for any other citizen. If a firearms officer, or a farmer, shoots & kills someone who is armed & a threat to anyone around them at that moment in time, that is lawful. If there are doubts about those facts, then it should go to open court & all the relevant facts disclosed.

2024-10-22 12:26:54 UTC

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On the contrary, UK police officers who shot people dead historically (late C19th-C20th) *almost always* had to go to trial, and that is a feature not a bug.

2024-10-22 12:21:11 UTC

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Provided there is at the same time democratic reform of Local Authorities, as at present too much of their (miniscule) power is vested in officials rather than elected Councillors, & excluded from ECHR provisions too.

2024-10-06 16:46:37 UTC

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Counterpoint: minimum pricing disincentivises manufacturers from producing "cheap booze" in the first place as it is at the same price point as more palatable versions. Based on wholesale prices, retailers don't really benefit from minimum pricing anyway.
Of course, the two policies are not mutually exclusive.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/261/479/036/842/241/original/bc4e7edde8b27602.jpg

2024-10-06 15:57:01 UTC

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You think they wouldn't repeal the Scotland Act at the same time?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/261/272/655/054/579/original/a6ed322fc60aa3ef.png

2024-09-28 12:20:52 UTC

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Legal measures of draught beer & cider in the UK are third of a pint, half pint, two-thirds of a pint, and multiples of half a pint.
While an argument exists to switch to metric measures "I find it difficult to finish a pint" is not one. Possibly wine, with its smaller measures of 125ml, 175ml, & multiples thereof may suit better.

2024-09-24 18:25:29 UTC

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A Roman centurion walks into a bar, and says "Barman, a martinus please"
The barman replies "Do you mean martini?"
Centurian replies "No, I just want one"

2024-09-24 17:46:51 UTC

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Longtermism is just "the ends justify the means" with added verbosity.

2024-09-19 13:45:07 UTC

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Mair pirates, less global warmin, aye.

2024-09-15 15:17:54 UTC

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The "North Britain" strategy. Its return matches the change in Unionism: it used to be that mainstream Scottish Unionists accepted that Scotland was a nation with its own culture, etc. but argued the best option for that nation was to remain within the UK. As that argument has become visibly more untenable, it has switched to a British Nationalist position, that the UK consists of a single British nation, administratively divided into historical regions.

2024-09-02 07:16:48 UTC

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The point of being a sovereign nation is that you don't need to go to a foreign court for permission to enforce your own laws.

2024-08-23 11:09:21 UTC

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That's what cartels do.

2024-08-23 09:03:21 UTC

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Maybe it will help if you don't think of a walking stick as a mobility aid, but rather as a traditional martial arts weapon.

2024-08-22 11:42:36 UTC

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Unless there is going to be several thousand percent increase to rural public transport (which we are always told is unaffordable) there is always at least going to be an interface between areas where cars are necessary & areas with a decent public transport system; ergo there is going to be a need for car parks at that interface (ie for park & ride).
As to car parks where public transport is viable, if they have solar panels they can later be repurposed into eg market squares

2024-08-03 15:46:03 UTC

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The purpose of a limited liability corporation is to remove liability from any individual. That has been embraced as meaning moral, not just legal, liability.

2024-05-28 09:31:32 UTC

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"We can't afford to repair the economy"
Which make total sense once you understand that "we" refers to the privileged few who are profiting from the current state of affairs, rather than the country as a whole.

2024-05-25 16:38:27 UTC

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One book a week is "a lot"? 😱

2024-05-19 21:08:33 UTC

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A tangled mass of documents making up a constitution you say?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/469/789/680/163/921/original/1ee015aba8f9d856.jpg

2024-05-19 20:09:53 UTC

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EU: the Parliament and the Council form a bicameral legislature.
Czech Republic, 1993: Deputies & Senate
Slovenia, 1991: Council & Assembly

2024-05-19 20:01:15 UTC

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Like *some* modern democracies. But certainly, with a written constitution & a constitutional court that is an option; especially if you have a federal structure.

2024-05-19 18:56:33 UTC

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The last part has been a feature of English/British government for a millennium, albeit with "king" prior to creation of office of Prime Minister.
Of course if you have a democratically elected first chamber, you could have a second chamber filled by sortition: random selection of voters, required to do a term in office. Call it the National Lottery.

2024-05-18 21:29:39 UTC

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Well those last few words hit the nail on the neck...
Although less fatally there are two current methods to remove someone from the House of Lords: if they are convicted & sentenced to 1year+ imprisonment; or if expelled by vote of the House for misconduct.

2024-05-14 14:16:44 UTC

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Or maybe all incorporated bodies should require to have a statement of their ethical principles, and they are audited on those in exactly the same way they are financially audited.