Like Andy Wightman I was disappointed, but not surprised, by the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) judgement on the Scottish Parliament’s bills incorporating the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the European Charter of Local Self Government (ECLSG). For those of us who followed the legal argument when the case was heard the writing was on the wall and the scathing comments from Lord Reed and his colleagues about aspects of the drafting of the UNCRC bill were not unexpected. 

To understand the implications for the likely fate of a Scottish Parliament bill designed to hold a second Independence referendum it is important to understand what the court did and did not say. This involves setting to one side some of the political spin about the judgment although, for some light relief, we should permit ourselves a good laugh at the sanctimonious hypocrisy of the Scottish Tories who voted for both bills unanimously. 

There’s a saying in football that anything can happen in 90 minutes but at the Labour conference this week Keir Starmer gave a 90 minute speech during which nothing much happened at all, unless you count the heckling. For such a long speech it was incredibly light on policy and tangible vision. I like Keir. I think he’s a decent guy, but this speech was distinctly underwhelming. Even more so for those watching in Scotland.  Notwithstanding the length of his speech, Scotland was mentioned only three times and he had absolutely nothing new or original to say about the union. 

It’s been another week of ignominy for the UK Government’s efforts to assist those left behind after the evacuation of Kabul. The revelation of yet more serious data breaches in relation to sensitive information about Afghans who worked for the British Government was particularly shocking because it meant lives have been put at risk. The Defence Minister, Ben Wallace, was quite right when he said that it should not just be the person who sent the email who was held to account but the chain upwards to make sure this does not happen again. The problem for Mr Wallace is that the chain upwards leads to him and his other cabinet colleagues.  Multiple and critical failings in relation to highly vulnerable people who are at immediate risk of death are clear evidence that the systems the Government have in place are inadequate and I have written to the Information Commissioner in this regard asking her to launch an investigation. 

No decent person could fail to be appalled by the shifty performance of Dominic Raab at the Foreign Affairs Select Committee this week. The political inquest into the fiasco of a seemingly unplanned withdrawal will continue when Westminster resumes next week. The chaos and human suffering that we witnessed as desperate Afghans and their families sought to flee Kabul has been harrowing. The terrorist explosion and the horrific loss of life which followed was shocking but predictable. Now we learn that British staff on the ground may have sent Afghans forward to their deaths despite the terrorist attack warning.