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Walking into the reception area of Glasgow’s superjail is like stepping back in time a good 200 years. Walking into the reception area of Glasgow’s superjail is like stepping back in time a good 200 years.
I remember well my first night, locked in a reception “dog box” that is no more than three feet square for three hours and being handed the cold congealed “mystery bowl” of stew in which the plastic spoon stood vertical. All this served only to drive home the message that Barlinnie was a law unto itself.Barlinnie ranks in the top five worst prisons in the UK, and I say that not only as editor of the principal annual reference book on the penal system but, more importantly, as someone who had the misfortune to experience its archaic brutalising horrors.So little has changed that a recent report by the chief inspector of Scottish prisons felt that the Victorians who built the prison would recognise much of it today. The degrading paint-flaking cell walls still retain the graffiti and food marks I witnessed there eight years ago.The same stained mattresses still rest upon the same dilapidated beds, amid the stench of human urine and parcels of excrement that litter the prison yards.The lack of facilities, poor work opportunities, overcrowding, cold meals, creaking laundry and the use of filthy, encrusted chamber pots combine to make a prison that should cause all decent-minded Scots to hang their heads in shame.Barlinnie has an appalling heroin problem, though the mandatory drug-testing figures show that only 20 per cent of prisoners test positive for drugs. The chief inspector of prisons declared that this was far lower than he had expected to find. There is, I believe, a simple explanation; drug-free urine has been a saleable commodity in Barlinnie for donkey’s years.The staff at Barlinnie have run the prison with an iron hand since the riots of a decade ago.

The level of staff violence to prisoners I have witnessed – and was a victim of myself more than once – is higher than at any prison in Scotland and probably the UK as a whole. Being locked up for 23 hours a day in filthy, vermin-infested conditions has made for a prison that should not just be closed, but demolished.Barlinnie is a penal dinosaur, struggling to cope with numbers it was never designed to house, in an age it was never expected to see, with a toxic combination of appalling conditions and brutal traditions that makes its place in the modern prison system incongruous, to say the least. I for one will toast its closure with pleasure.* Mark Leech is a former Barlinnie inmate who served eight years for armed robbery – two in Barlinnie – and is now chief executive of the national ex-offenders’ charity Unlock.. A 30mph speed limit has been put on the Army’s 780 Warrior armoured vehicles because of safety fears, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. A 30mph speed limit has been put on the Army’s 780 Warrior armoured vehicles because of safety fears, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
The MoD said concerns over possible faulty drive shafts had led to the move.And the vehicles, which have been used widely by British forces on peacekeeping missions, will also be banned from travelling on public roads until the problem is repaired.It follows two accidents this year, when the 27-tonne vehicle reportedly went out of control after a drive shaft snapped.Manufacturers Alvis Vehicles are working to resolve the problem which is expected to take four months to complete.The Warrior, which has become the workhorse for British infantry units since it was introduced in the 1980s, has a top road speed of around 47mph.The speed restriction is the latest in a line of embarrassing setbacks for the MoD over the last two years.It recently had to recall the Royal Navy’s fleet of 12 nuclear-powered submarines for safety checks to their reactor coolant systems after a leak was found on HMS Tireless.. The government won its battle with the House of Lords yesterday over plans for the part-privatisation of the National Air Traffic Services. The government won its battle with the House of Lords yesterday over plans for the part-privatisation of the National Air Traffic Services.
Peers voted 157 to 57 to support a compromise amendment that would delay anysell-off for three months.The Transport Bill, which also includes other key measures such as legislation to set up the Strategic Rail Authority and congestion charging in cities, will now reach the statute book by the end of week.John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, feared that he might lose the Bill in the light of peers’ opposition but the Tories backed down because they did not want to force a constitutional showdown over the issue.

The Government was previously defeated twice over the controversial plans and faced three substantial backbench rebellions in the Commons. Under the plans, the Government will sell off 51 per cent of Nats to one of three bidders in spring 2001, to enable £1bn to be invested in its antiquated technology.But the move has met determined opposition from unions representing air traffic controllers and airline pilots, backbench Labour MPs and a coalition of Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers in the Lords, who argue it would undermine safety. Unions also fear the bidders may lay off up to 70 per cent of air traffic engineers by contracting out their work.Speaking in the Lords, Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, a Transport minister, said peers would be allowed a government statement on progress to bring in the Bill next spring.However, the Liberal Democrats, who are fiercely opposed to the scheme, insisted on pressing on with a Conservative amendment that would have delayed implementation of the sell-off until after the general election, despite a climbdown from an Opposition frontbench spokesman, Lord Brabazon of Tara. Lord Brabazon told peers that “we have achieved what I believe the role of this House is, that is to ask the Government to think again and ensure the details of legislation are properly thought through.”Lord Richard, Labour peer and a former Lords leader, admitted that it was “very difficult” to find anyone on the Labour benches in the Lords who was enthusiastic about the proposal.But he added: “The issue now is the relationship between this House and the House of Commons.”Nats is an important issue but it is not one in my submission to this House that would justify a major constitutional clash between the two Houses of Parliament.”.

For 25 years Ralph King was a lone voice who dared to challenge the official verdict into the Flixborough chemical plant explosion, which killed 28 people. This week the scientist’s dogged claim that “blundering ignorance” caused the disaster appears to have been proved right. For 25 years Ralph King was a lone voice who dared to challenge the official verdict into the Flixborough chemical plant explosion, which killed 28 people. This week the scientist’s dogged claim that “blundering ignorance” caused the disaster appears to have been proved right.
In June 1974, a huge explosion ripped apart the Nypro-owned chemical plant in Flixborough, on the banks of the Trent in Lincolnshire. Fifty-three people were injured.An inquiry claimed it was caused by the basic “catastrophic” mechanical failure of a valve. It implied control room staff may have been negligent in controlling pressure in the chemical system.

But Mr King, then employed by Nypro as part of the original investigating team, refused to accept the official findings.He consistently claimed the explosion was really triggered by “blundering ignorance” of the chemical processes involved and not the fault of the control room staff. He says the presence of water inside the reactors and the simultaneous shutting down of crucial stirring equipment, caused a unexpected pressure surge that blew the valve apart.The disaster struck during the processing of cyclohexane, a highly inflammable component liquid. A temporary bypass assembly linking two of the plant’s six reactors failed, causing the chemical to escape The leak ignited and caused the blast. Mr King says the rupture was caused by a massive build-up of pressure, triggered by events that would not have been permitted to occur had the process been fully understood by Nypro’s chemical engineers.For years Ralph King’s claims met only indifference from officials. But an increasing number of eminent engineers, Mr King’s MP, Sir Archie Hamilton, and the respected technical journal Chemical Engineer have supported his calls for a new investigation.Last April The Independent revealed that the Health and Safety Executive had ordered laboratory experiments to test the King theory. This week Mr King had a letter from the HSE saying its small-scale tests at its laboratory in Buxton, Derbyshire, seemed to confirm his theory. “They provide promising support of King’s theory showing clearly that a hot cyclohexane-water system will produce significant pressure surges,” it said.