Blogs & Articles
When it comes to sex offences against children, we need to condemn less and understand more
More heat than light has been generated by the media blitzkrieg around the future employment by Hearts of Craig Thomson, the young footballer convicted of sexual offences with underage girls. Facing the loss of sponsorship and other support, it seems Hearts probably will sack him. Will that be a happy end to the affair? I don't think so. Will it increase the protection of children and young people and promote better attitudes to...
You’re all missing something very important about the rape clause
There may be something far more sinister behind the Tories' so-called 'rape clause' "SEE this fist? You should have been watching the other one!" My father used to have a game where he would hold up a clenched fist and say, see this hand? Watch this," and as we watched the hand, he would then bring the other hand up to punch us (gently) on the chin - his message being that it is not the hand being waved in your face you have to watch but...
HMP Inverclyde women’s prison: invest in community projects to prevent offending
Maggie Mellon sums up the argument against the Scottish Prison Service’s proposal for substantial capital investment in a new women’s prison at HMP Inverclyde to replace HMP Cornton Vale. This is a version of a letter recently sent to the Justice Secretary by Edinburgh Women for Independence. By Maggie Mellon The Scottish Government should not endorse the plan to replace HMP Cornton Vale with a large new women’s prison in Inverclyde. This plan...
How the State makes a Bad Parent
Open letter to the Scottish `Parliament. This is an article I have written about the childrens hearings and why they need to be reviewed. It will be of interest to any parent who has had to attend a hearing. Sentence first, trial later for many parents and children who are separated by decisions of the hearings, and dont get to have the case heard until the child has been hurt and the family broken. Dear Scottish parliament, We need to talk...
Protect the human: Don’t stunt love
Maggie Mellon asks why we have children and what makes a parent. Drawing on her own experience of motherhood, she suggests what the national parenting strategy should do. Just over 22 years ago, at nearly midnight on 21 December 1989, I had my first child by caesarean section in the Whittington Hospital in north London. I was 36 years old, had a full-time job, nearly a year's paid maternity leave to look forward to, a three-bedroom house with a...
Maggie Mellon: Why the Named Person legislation is not a progressive measure
Feminist campaigner and social worker Maggie Mellon makes the case against the Scottish Government's 'Named Person' scheme SCOTLAND, like the rest of the UK and much of Europe, is an increasingly unequal society. Poverty and inequality are what stunt children's lives and these things cannot be tackled by caseworking the entire population of children. Instead, housing, jobs, income, education, health services and the environment are the...
Maggie Mellon: Why Scottish Women’s Aid should change course on its prisons position
Feminist campaigner Maggie Mellon explains why she believes short term prison sentences are unhelpful - even in domestic abuse cases SCOTLAND may be poised to take a big step away from having one of the highest rates of imprisonment in Europe. Eighty-four per cent of respondents in a recent government consultation favoured a presumption against short prison sentences - which basically means encouraging the courts not to hand down short jail...
Women for Indy Justice Watch Blog august 2016
In this blog, I am going to write about not just my own experience and views but also cover some of the issues that we all have encountered and the experiences of women in a number of courts. A fair hearing? Readers who have not been in a criminal court will have seen film and TV court scenes. In these the public gallery can hear everything clearly and understand it too. But its not like that at all. Those who have been in an actual court will...
How the Named Person crusade could damage the case for Scottish independence
First publish by Common Space in August 2016 Feminist campaigner and former social worker Maggie Mellon explains why she's welcoming a recent decision from the Supreme Court on the controversial Named Person law WHY has the Scottish Government allowed itself to be undone by a scheme with an Orwellian name which it never able to explain without contradicting themselves? On Thursday, the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on the case against...