(791)  CALMAN COMMISSION MEMBERS ANNOUNCED

The constitutional commission set up by opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament (see previously No 744) announced its 15 members on 28 April 2008.  The name of the chair, Sir Kenneth Calman, Chancellor of Glasgow University, had already been made public on 25 March: he is a distinguished medical academic who was previously Vice-Chancellor of Durham University.  Other members include names well-known to Scots Law News readers:  Lord Wallace (three times acting First Minister), Lord Boyd (longest-serving Lord Advocate), and Professor Sir David Edward (former British judge in the European Court of Justice).  Other lawyers spotted in the ranks are Tory peer and advocate Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, and Shonaig Macpherson (once upon a time of McGrigor Donald, but now chair of the National Trust for Scotland and Scottish Council Development and Industry (SCDI)).  The group can discuss anything about the devolution settlement except independence.  An SNP Parlaimentary motion noted that five of the names were members of the House of Lords and two others knights, suggesting that the group was not representative of Scottish society as a whole; Wendy Alexander, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, argued however that they were a selection of high-calibre people”.

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