I’m part of the post war generation who were too young for national service and are now too old to fight, who never had to worry about finding work, who bought our houses on mortgages which shrank during the inflationary Seventies, a son of parents whose lives were shaped by all of those things, not least the war, which kept them apart for six years. We’ve been truly lucky, and I feel sorry for those who now face different times.
My father was anxious that I should not waste time, so I started at Glasgow University at the age of sixteen. It was October 1964, the month that Harold Wilson ended the “thirteen wasted years” of Tory rule, although in truth the difference between Tory and Labour throughout the fifties had been largely in rhetoric than in substance, as the UK was recovering and crippled by post war debt to the US.
The mid Sixties were a time of massive university expansion, accompanied by the introduction of new courses and new teachers. In Scottish law faculties the main change in student life for most was the transition from a morning lecture followed by a hard day’s work in an office, to full time student life, the old BL degree becoming the new LLB. The course formerly taken by wealthier students, five years full time study leading to the joint MA LLB, largely died out. The change wasn’t just in letters. The older part-time professors were steadily phased out, to be replaced by academics who encouraged students to think more widely than just about careers, men such as Alexander Elder Anton, a renowned international lawyer, who had a sideline in drafting international conventions.
In time I got my degree in Jurisprudence, Sandy Anton sent me to the Hague Academy of International Law, and thereafter I did part time tutoring under him for several years. This led to attendance at conferences on subjects such as written constitutions and the issues around a country without one joining the EU. A year or so ago I caught up with an old colleague, and we reflected that our researches, writings and discussions on subjects such as the concept of legal validity, the status of international law, and sovereignty, had suddenly become relevant to our current times. In recent years I’ve used what I learned in those days to write for anyone who would publish me, principally the late and much missed Iain Lawson. I’ll continue to do so on this Substack, starting with a major essay which appeared on Barrhead Boy last November.
Outside the law, I’ve had other diverse interests, from ships and the sea, to the environmental damage caused by fish farms, to the art and architecture of Glasgow, and I’ve made a hobby of boat building. These have all fuelled blogs and pages on social media, for example www.scottishboating.blogspot.com and West Coast Matters on Facebook. I hope to cover these topics from time to time.