Scotland

I suspect that the idea that opportunistic looting can be explained by organised gangs is, no matter what the Prime Minister said this morning, a questionable premise. Nevertheless, it was interesting and encouraging to see him reference the work done by the Violence Reduction Unit at Strathclyde Police. Interesting because their approach to gang-related violence demonstrates just how tricky the problem is and how “traditional” policing and criminal justice approaches fail to have much, if any, useful impact. Here’s a terrific and freshly-relevent Prospect piece that explains how the project has worked in Glasgow and, before that, in Boston. Karyn McCluskey is a very impressive person and, in my limited

Coffee House congratulations to Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall, who were married in Edinburgh today. Footage via ConservativeHome:

Sometimes changing course is the prudent option. The SNP’s grim plans for their Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Bill have been put on hold for the next six months. The government still wishes to legislate on this matter by the end of the year but at least we are saved the unseemly scramble to rush this rotten bill through Holyrood before the next season begins – god help us – next month. For that recognition alone Salmond deserves some credit even if he’d have more left in the bank had he never embarked upon this reckless enterprise in the first place. Doubtless this will be spun as the

Meanwhile in happier news for Alex Salmond and his merry throng, the latest GERS figures are out and you can expect to see the Natiionalists trumpet them to all who care to listen: Government and Expenditure Revenue Scotland 2009-10 figures show that, including a geographical share of UK North Sea oil and gas revenues, Scotland contributed 9.4% of UK public sector revenue and received 9.3% of total UK public sector expenditure, including a per capita share of UK debt interest payments. Including a geographical share of North Sea revenues, Scotland’s estimated current budget balance in 2009-10 was a deficit of £9bn, or 6.8% of GDP – stronger than the UK-wide

How do you measure a place? A community? A spirit? It is a media-driven cliche that all communities, especially when struck by disaster, must be deemed “close-knit”. Politicians, meanwhile, give speeches suggesting that chaos is running amok and destroying these supposedly confident communities, leaving us with nothing better than an atomised society in which the ties that bind have been loosed with depressing consequences. This seems something Ed Miliband believes. He should be in Selkirk today. This is the first Friday after the second Monday in June and that means it is Selkirk Common Riding day. This is the most important, grandest day in the town’s calendar and one reason

Hendrik Hertzberg has some fun with Rick Perry’s occasional suggestions* that Texas could secede from the United States of America. Doing so he quotes extensively from a message Abraham Lincoln sent to Congress on July 4th, 1861. It is, as you would imagine, good stuff. But that doesn’t mean it solves everything and nor is it the case that Lincoln is an anti-Godwin whom you need only quote to prevail in any argument. In any case, you might also think that there’s a difference between what was true in the Civil War and what must be true – legally or politically – now. Meanwhile, some of what Lincoln has to

It cannot be said that Alex Salmond’s ministry is off to a good legislative start. Not when its immediate aim is, apparently, to rush through ill-considered, illiberal, speech-curbing legislation that asks the public not to worry about the detail and trust that the legal authorities will not actually enforce either the letter or the spirit of the Offensive Behaviour in Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill. According to Salmond: “I am determined that the authorities have the powers they need to clamp down effectively on bigotry peddled online. The Internet is a force for good in so many ways – but it can also be abused by those who seek to spread hatred. That’s