Bandwagons.

So, following the collapse of the World's End double murder trail earlier this week, it appears that Members of the Scottish Parliament are queuing up to jump on the bandwagon calling for the abolition of Scotland's "double jeopardy" law with prohibits someone being tried twice for the same offence.

Now as a civil libertarian Mr Smith is fundamentally uneasy about the concept of the law being changed firstly, on the basis of one case, no matter how profile or serious it is, and secondly, in relation to a case where the suggestion is that the major reason why it collapsed is because of the incompetence of Scotland's prosecution services. Incompetence which has been highlighted previously. A charge which so far they have seemed remarkably adept at being scrutinised too closely in Scotland's media and press.

The suggestion a few days ago in one newspaper was that the Crown Office didn't prosecute the alleged World's End murderer for all the murders they suspected him of committing because it would have highlighted the fact that someone was already banged up in prison for committing one of them, a clear potential miscarriage of justice that would have caused them embarrassment, despite the fact that this would have strengthened the case against the accused.

So far the Scottish Government has resisted calls for the change preferring instead a more modest proposal to allow retrials where the judge rules that insufficient evidence has been presented. This would be preferable to changing a law which, for all its faults, has served justice well, and lead to prosecutors being forced to get it right first time.

In closing, one thing which Mr Smith thinks has not helped in this case is that the person who presides over Scotland's justice system, the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini, was first appointed to the position by the previous Labour/Liberal Democrat administration, and was reaffirmed in the position by the current SNP administration. Mr Smith thinks that this "endorsement" gives too many MSPs good reason not to honestly and impartially question her performance and that of the Crown Office.

With the benefit of hindsight, Mr Smith suggests it would have been better if the current SNP Government had followed precedent and appointed a fresh "Lord Advocate" after May's elections so as to avoid this issue arising. Too many MSPs have a stake in the current Lord Advocate's position; too many, where Justice itself, is at stake.