Nicola Sturgeon’s programme for the next year at Holyrood contains a few eye-catching policies.
Freezing rail fares is welcome and offering greater protection to the many Scots who rent their homes is long overdue.
But perhaps the most historic announcement of all was the final confirmation that a quirk of the Scottish legal system will end.
The First Minister confirmed that legislation will be introduced to scrap the not proven verdict.
It has long been a bizarre feature of criminal trials in Scotland that jurors have three verdicts to choose from – guilty, not guilty, or not proven.
In the eyes of the law, a not proven verdict has exactly the same effect of not guilty – the accused is free to go without a stain on their character.
But it’s often a different story in the eyes of the public.
On too many occasions, it seems that a jury has chosen a not proven verdict because they could not bring themselves to publicly declare the accused was entirely innocent.
It is a verdict that often carries a whiff of suspicion.
Just ask the relatives of Amanda Duffy, who was brutally murdered in Hamilton in 1992.
Despite a weight of evidence, her likely killer was able to walk free from court after a not proven verdict was returned.
Campaigners have called for its abolition ever since.
We should be rightly proud of Scotland’s ancient legal system.
But this legal reform should have been carried out years ago.
Cold comfort
The rent freeze for tenants in socially rented and private sector housing in Scotland is a radical, long overdue and very welcome step for those facing a winter of misery.
In an emergency situation every lever has to be pulled to try to save people from destitution.
The legal consequences, and the impact on availability in the housing market, are still to become apparent but any measure that keeps money in peoples’ pockets during a cost of living crisis has to be welcomed.
The legislation proposed by Nicola Sturgeon comes only a few months after a similar proposal by Scottish Labour was voted down by SNP and Scottish Green MSPs.
So Sturgeon deserves some credit for changing tack and bringing in the measure alongside a freeze on rail fares and the extension of the Scottish Child Payment, another overdue measure.
Hopefully, Liz Truss will be equally bold when she finally brings us her plans to freeze fuel bills to help avoid catastrophe for millions this winter.
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