10 hours ago
Scottish courts must give longer sentences to domestic abusers and support victims
The 47-year-long reign of abuse suffered by Eve Graham at the hands of her ex-husband should shock Scotland.
Eve was subjected to the most horrific attacks by William McDonald – including punches, biting, mental torture and even pushing her off a pier.
The gran has bravely decided to tell her story in the Daily Record today to encourage other women to come forward.
She suffered in silence for too long and she wants other domestic abuse victims to raise alarm bells as soon as they can.
We are backing Eve's call 100 per cent and think it's essential that support for women in these situations is improved.
However, after suffering for 47 years Eve is furious at seeing her husband jailed for just two years.
She says the sentence is too lenient – and we agree this is another example of the courts going easy on domestic abuse.
Elsewhere in our paper today we report on conman Thomas Robinson, jailed for three and a half years for selling fake Scottish tea to posh hotels.
Many will wonder if our justice system has the right priorities when looking at these two cases.
Do we really believe as a society that the abuse of a woman over 47 years is less serious that selling dodgy tea?
The courts need to start reflecting the horror felt by right-minded people at prolonged and violent abuse of women.
That means longer sentences and more support for victims.
And hopefully Eve's case can spark a national debate that brings about the change women desperately need to see.
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Rethink the Bill
The principles behind Labour's welfare bill are sound and supportable.
The Tories consigned too many people who can work to a life on benefits, instead of supporting them into jobs.
They failed to tackle the NHS backlog that fuels the sickness benefits bill and did not provide the unemployed with adequate training.
Labour's plan aims to help hundreds of thousands of people by restoring the dignity of work. But the actual Bill has not been handled well and could be scuppered by fuzzy thinking.
There is a big difference between those who can work, and those who cannot, but Labour's Bill does not do enough to distinguish between the two.
People who genuinely need to be on sickness and disability benefits should never be worse off under a Labour Government, but they will lose money.
And despite the measures being framed as pro-work, the cuts will also hit disabled people who already have a job.
The vulnerable must be protected and Labour must rethink parts of their welfare Bill.
Otherwise they could be about to walk into another badly handled debacle like the Winter Fuel Payment U-turn.
