Stuart Waiton

Sunday

Stuart Waiton

Accused rapists aren’t getting a fair trial in Scotland

From our UK edition

The UK Supreme Court has made a very confused ruling about whether or not Scottish courts are breaching the right to a fair trial in rape cases. Some believe this is a ‘landmark ruling’ that could, ‘trigger multiple appeals by men convicted of sexual offences in Scotland’. In my opinion the court is having its cake and eating it.   The ruling states that two rape cases they assessed in October last year were fair and there was no breach of the European Convention on Human Rights' Article 6, the right to a fair trial. But also: ‘The Scottish courts should modify their current approach to the admission of evidence in trials for sexual offences because it is liable to infringe defendants’ rights under Article 6 of the Convention’.

Sunday

Stuart Waiton

Scotland’s juryless rape trials are based on a myth

From our UK edition

Scotland currently faces a huge threat to the criminal justice system, in the form of juryless trials in rape cases.  In the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, currently making its way through Holyrood, there is a proposal to carry out a pilot scheme where rape cases are adjudicated by a judge without a jury. A key reason given is that there is ‘overwhelming evidence’ that the public are prejudiced and believe in what are called ‘rape myths’ – with people blaming the victim instead of the perpetrator of a rape. Essentially, the argument is that the public cannot be trusted because they are backward and sexist and cannot possibly be expected to come to a just decision in a court of law.

Sunday

Stuart Waiton

Scottish schools have become places of indoctrination

From our UK edition

Nicola Sturgeon may be on her way out – but after 16 years of SNP rule, Scottish schools are still places of indoctrination. This may sound like a hyperbolic thing to say, but that’s the only conclusion you can draw when you look at what Scottish educators and the Scottish government are saying themselves.   Take the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s Standard for Headship, which sets out the professional framework for what a headteacher, teachers and schools should be all about.    You would expect such a document to be all about imparting knowledge and aspiring to teach every child as much as possible.

Wednesday

Stuart Waiton

The attempt to topple the Scottish Enlightenment

From our UK edition

It’s not just America that is in the process of rewriting its history and casting itself as patriarchal and oppressive – a similar process is taking place in Scotland. Giants of the Enlightenment such as David Hume are being reimagined as the architects of slavery and the fathers of modern racism. Scotland’s first black professor, Sir Geoff Palmer, exemplified the new way of thinking in an astonishing talk I heard him give recently at Dundee University. He spoke about the horror of George Floyd’s murder and told the audience that when he watches the footage of the strangulation: ‘All I can see is David Hume.’ The attempt to topple the Scottish Enlightenment began in September 2020 when a group of students demanded that Edinburgh University’s David Hume Tower be renamed.