As the Stop the War Coalition holds its annual conference, ANDREW MURRAY warns that Britain’s alignment with US foreign policy is fuelling global instability and diverting billions from welfare, wages and public services
Latest editorial
Campaigning to end ‘Not Proven’ verdicts
EVE LIVINGSTON on the the campaign to end the arcane legal verdict that is letting Scottish rapists off
Sandy Brindley, chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, leaves the Personal Injury Court in Edinburgh, last June, following the start of the trial of Stephen Coxen, who is being sued for £100,000 in damages by a woman he was previously cleared of raping in St Andrews in 2013
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the tension between treating children as vulnerable dependants and recognising them as citizens with rights
The tightening of protest rights reflects a broader shift toward repression in Britain’s strained liberal democracy. Socialists and trade unionists must be ready to resist further attacks on our freedoms, warns JOHN McINALLY
Until ministers stop deferring to the market and start drawing hard lines, the public will remain at the mercy of private power, says MATT KERR
As the US intensifies its economic and political pressure it is now vitally important to demand the British government intervene to end US aggression, writes GEOFF BOTTOMS
SEVIM DAGDELEN argues that a legal framework exists for a closure of US and Nato military base in Ramstein
For hundreds of years, Scotland has been one of the only countries in the world – and the only in Europe – to present three possible verdicts in criminal trials: guilty, not guilty, or not proven.
Now a campaign spearheaded by rape survivors and charities seeks to change that, calling for the abolition of the controversial “not proven” verdict which they argue is disproportionately used in rape cases.
The campaign was born when a woman known only as Miss M successfully sued Stephen Coxen, her accused rapist, in a civil court in 2015 following a not proven verdict in a criminal trial. It was the first civil damages action for rape following an unsuccessful criminal prosecution in almost a century.
Similar stories
Former judge ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the details and controversy of Lucy Letby’s trial and appeal in the context of famous historical wrongful convictions that prove both the justice system and legal activists make errors
PCS members face dangerous working conditions in crumbling buildings while the Common Platform IT system obstructs rather than streamlines operations — and Labour’s promised wave of insourcing has not materialised, writes SHARON McLEAN
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the government’s proposals to further limit the right of citizens to trial by jury