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...

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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...

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Evidence to The Isle of Man Social Affairs Committee

  Procedural The Acting Chairman (Mr Speaker): Good afternoon everyone. Can I welcome everyone to this meeting of the Social Affairs Policy Review Committee. We are taking evidence in public this afternoon and can I ask as a matter of housekeeping if people would kindly switch off their mobile phones so this does not interfere with the recording equipment. My name is Steve Rodan. I am acting as Chair of the Committee in the absence of the...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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About Maggie

Maggie Mellon (CQSW, MSc, Dip Child Protection) is a social worker with many years’ experience in both Scotland and England. She has been vice chair of the British Association of Social Workers since 2014, and also chairs the Association’s Ethics and Human Rights Committee. She was formerly Director of Services for Children 1st and Head of Public Policy for NCH Action for Children in Scotland. Chair of the Scottish Child Law Centre from 2009 -12. Currently non–executive Director of NHS Health Scotland and a member of the editorial Board of Scottish Justice Matters. Maggie now works independently as a consultant on social work practice and public policy.