Angiolini
Eilish Angiolini is to continue as Lord Advocate. What do you mean, you don’t care? This is an intriguing development. She was LA under the Labour/LibDem Executive. She’s still LA under the SNP. This is new model consensual government in practice.
But then you guys were ready for this development – because you read it here first. (C’mon, I’m allowed a little trumpet-blowing.)
The bold Angiolini was in Holyrood this morning to be endorsed by MSPs, her ears burning as she was praised on all sides. Incidentally, I’ve found her occasional Holyrood speaking roles amusing: she sometimes sounds as if she’s in court. “I’m obliged, m’Lord.â€
But she’s ferociously bright – and determined. She’s challenged established presumptions with vigour and diplomacy. She’s also widely liked and respected – indeed, she’s in danger of becoming the new Lord James.
For the future, she won’t sit in Cabinet (unlike under Labour/LibDem). Alex Salmond explained that it was important to draw a line between the political and the legal sectors of governance.
However, consensus goes only too far. The Solicitor General, John Beckett, will be replaced by Frank Mulholland QC. Mr Mulholland – who was also warmly praised at Holyrood on all sides – is perhaps best known for prosecuting Transco over the Larkhall gas explosion.
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Comments
I had the pleasure of chairing an event that Elish Angiolini attended when she was Solicitor General. She is bright, engaging and yet very practical. A bit like Brian's Galluses.
The move to keep her on as LA strikes me as a very wise move. Why change such an important post just for the sake of change? The separation of law and politics, although something that will never be quite as neet as some imagine, is nonetheless a signal that I suspect is welcomed by many.
She used to be depute Procurator Fiscal in Airdie. Says a lot about her really!
Was/is she a Labour party member?
Eilish Angiolini-my wife knew her from her past days as a fical in Hamilton.Says she a very nice person.
Hopefully she'll be able to bridge the gap between the poltical divide-of some of those MSP's ears, that is.
Perhaps Ms Angiolini can explain for us simple folk, how the unnecessarily complicated process of voting, combined with counting machines that largely failed, and so denied 140,000 people their Democratic Right to be heard, gives us a Government and says it was all Legal. 140,000 must be a high percentage of our voting population, maybe even a World record. This is'nt Democracy; This is Stalinisim. The man who once said; "It is not the votes that are important, it is the people that count the votes who are important". And who awarded the multi-million Pound contract for the counting machines to DRS?, a company that develops `intelligence` systems for defence contractors. Sounds a bit dodgy to me.