One of Scotland's top human rights lawyers has described the Scottish Government's "conversion practices" proposals as “ill-thought out”, “confused” and “fundamentally illiberal in intent and effect”. heraldscotland.com/news/24112591.… Aidan O'Neill KC says the plans lack definition and could lead to religious believers, parents, gender critical feminists and medical professionals being criminalised at a low threshold. Here's an extract from his legal opinion, published today.

🧵There’s a very important article in The Scotsman today by two GPs considering medics’ response to gender dysphoria in children. scotsman.com/news/opinion/c… Many doctors do not consider current treatment pathways to be in the best interests of children. However, they fear that failing to toe the line and endorse “experimental” treatments will land them in legal hot water.

🧵on 'Hate Incidents'.

Today, England's Court of Appeal ruled that police guidance on the recording of "non-crime hate incidents" unlawfully interferes with free expression (see link). In light of this, it's worth looking at the situation in Scotland. judiciary.uk/judgments/mill… Police Scotland also records such incidents. "Hate Incidents" are defined as any "non-crime" incident that is "perceived by the victim or any other person to be 'motivated (wholly or partly) by malice or ill-will towards a social group".

🧵I enjoy Alec's writing but he couldn't be more wrong on this. Here are a some reasons why.

1. His main argument for 'assisted dying' is public support. This drops when people learn more details. And there is some confusion about what is meant. thetimes.co.uk/article/royal-… A recent survey found 42% of the public in Britain thought assisted dying meant refusing or stopping life-sustaining treatment, which is already legal in the country; 10% thought it was hospice-type care. Less than half understood what it really means.

A fisk of this article by a Lib Dem MSP, doing the rounds today. In summary, plenty bold statements without any regard to evidence or ethical concerns. scotsman.com/news/opinion/c… Let’s look at this statement first, on the latest Holyrood proposals. This completely neglects the idea that the laws in these jurisdictions could be problematic. And they are problematic, particularly when it comes to the issue of incremental extension.

🧵Some thoughts on Scotland's latest #assistedsuicide proposals.

On Sunday, it was announced that a bill to legalise doctor-assisted suicide in Scotland will be brought before Holyrood. This is hugely dispiriting for those who have opposed this move in recent years. Assisted suicide - or, as it is euphemistically termed ‘assisted dying’ - has already been comprehensively rejected both by Holyrood and Westminster several times.

🧵

A new Savanta poll has found that 8 in 10 UK adults want the Government to implement age verification controls for access to online pornography.

The same proportion of adults think there should be an age limit of 18 for access to pornography sites. Read about the full findings here 👇 care.org.uk/news/2021/06/p…

🧵The more I read about sexual harassment and 'rape culture' the more it shocks me that so little of it is being attributed to pornography, and so little is being done to curb porn sites and prevent access to porn by impressionable children and young people. This week, a report by schools' regulator Ofsted found that sexual harassment is 'normalised' among school-age children. 9 in 10 girls interviewed by inspectors reported sexist name-calling and being sent unwanted explicit images "a lot" or "sometimes". bbc.co.uk/news/education…

NE journos are in line for an award for investigative work on trafficking & modern slavery.

Their work is so important as these things go undetected despite occurring below our noses.

Do buy/subscribe to @thecourieruk today & support great journalism. thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/… Here are some examples of the findings. thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/…

Confused by this thread. Isn't possession/prescription of raw cannabis illegal?

https://twitter.com/chrisclements/status/1402701635290374150

Sorry Chris, one more Q. I did a bit of research on this back in 2018 and seem to remember concluding that it is only cannabis-derived products (eg cannabis oils, sprays etc) available for prescription under the new rules, rather than the raw drug itself (as pictured by STV).