While the government refused to discuss workers’ demands for months the wave of strikes and protests have led it to call nurses, ambulance workers, and physiotherapists to the negotiating table.
The public is being whipped up to observe emotional mourning for the late queen, while those who you would expect truly to be in grief are engaged in cold, political calculation.
Think of every sensible thing you think you know about prison. Think of education, training, rehabilitation. It is all completely ignored by the Scottish Prison Service.
Murray describes his day in court, where his defense counsel said his case represents the biggest single interference with freedom of speech in the modern history of Scotland.
Murray recommends a spell there to any other middle-class person who, like himself, was foolish enough to believe that Scotland is a socially progressive country.
The activist, blogger and former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, who was imprisoned for his journalism, walked free from Saughton Prison in Edinburgh, Scotland on Tuesday.