Calum Steele

I may have lived in six different houses in the past 30 odd years but as an emigrant son of South Uist, I and many like me will always refer to the island of my birth as home. It makes no difference where and when islanders meet, the question of when they were last home always crops up such is the love and affection we hold for our Hebridean origins.

The decision to name Sgt Blake as a murder suspect was as incompressible to all logic, as details of subsequent gang bounty on his head proved it to be

It seems our collective ability to empathise and respond to the pain and endless suffering of others is on the wane. Individual opinions and feelings seem more important than the realities of how others are living (and dying) than at any time in my lifetime, as do sadly the belief that they need to share them.

One of the biggest weaknesses with the Scottish Police Authority is the absence of any democratically elected representation holding the police to account. This is not some fluffy ideal but strikes at the very heart of police legitimacy in the context of a police by consent model.

It is true there is a stigma associated with addiction but the way to beat that stigma is to beat addiction.

As Scotland continues to boast the riots that hit much of the wider UK didn’t materialise here, it’s worth asking ourselves not why, but what if? If thuggery, wanton destruction, looting, assaults and violence against communities and police officers had occurred - how would we have responded?

During one of many debates I had on the importance of police numbers, I was asked if I wanted to live in a society that has a police officer on every street corner, or one that didn’t need the police on every street corner.

The only time politics seems to really care about violence is when it's directed towards those in elected office

In all my time in the Scottish Police Federation I only knew one Scottish Government: an SNP one. One thing my experience with Justice showed was that it became consistently poorer at listening, learning and reflecting over those years.

We all have at least one friend who when out for an Indian or Chinese would struggle to pick from a single choice menu. They always insist on ordering last as clearly hearing the dishes spoken brings a clarity in decision making that isn’t there when reading the thing. The meal is served and they are the one full of regret they didn’t choose what someone else had devoured beside them.