Ooh, don’t those mince pies look gorgeous on the TV? I’ve been trying to guess which taste the est and I have to give the award to Tesco because theirs look spectacular. I do, however, need to dock points because of their contribution to the “perfect family” image. All of the major adverts on TV…

Okay, I’ll admit it – I do not have a balanced view on prisons. There you go, I said it. From my position, they are cruel, expensive, counter-productive and I see a very strong argument for the abolition of prisons in their current form. I don’t see any proper justification for current practice other than…

Today is one of the most important days of the year – St Andrew’s Day. It is a day when everything about Scotland can be celebrated, yet oddly nothing much actually happens. Perhaps people haven’t got the memo. Scotland is a weird place sometimes; a country full of contradiction and strongly placed pride, “we” love…

I saw a lovely photo the other day of a frosty spider’s web glinting in the early morning sun. How beautiful it was until I made the link with how razor wire has a similar glint. Impressive in terms of its ability to inflict horrific injuries, razor wire is everywhere although, to be fair, most…

Does anyone else remember the adverts for Carlesberg lager? I haven’t seen them in a while but they always had a wonderful depiction of an everyday thing with the tagline “If Carlesberg made cars/flats/tvs etc” then the line “Probably the best lager in the world.” Well I know for sure that Carlesberg is not made…

I try to maintain the best relationship I can with my daughter but it is so tough. I missed her first day at primary school and so many other “firsts”. This whole thing is so very cruel to her and she can’t possibly grasp the details of the situation I am in. However, what she…

It is fair to say that I have been somewhat critical of much of the practice. I have observed in Scottish Prison Service establishments. This is because I expect staff to behave appropriately and within the rules and when I see practice which is inappropriate or unlawful I am not scared of shining a light…

Well good Lordy, didn’t Barlinnie look lovely on the TV (BBC Scotland series “Inside Barlinnie“). The impression the three programmes gave was that it was a lovely place and there’s nothing to worry about. I imagine the SPS is going to change its marketing tag line to “Yeah, but it used to be so much…

I try to avoid watching too much TV. It would be so easy to become a total couch potato in prison because there is so little to do. The TV is an easy way for time to pass but 90% of the content is unwholesome and I really do think it can be damaging to…

Political alignment is a complicated area but I recently heard it said that the main difference between politics in the UK and politics in the US is the strong polarisation; in the UK, there is room for compromise and collaboration whereas int eh USA, the opposition is the enemy and is totally wrong 100% of…