Removal of judge in Palestine Action ban legal challenge ‘deeply concerning’... so it looks like the classic British establishment stitch-up is underway. "This raises serious questions around the lack of impartiality and transparency in our judicial system" www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Or: they want to make it appeal proof. You can never read a tribunal.

Maybe. Or maybe the court realises this will be a judgment which requires a “strong bench”. Courts can be like the first dance at Jack Rabbit Slim: you never can tell.

Juries of 12 randomly selected citizens put the moral intuitions of ordinary people at the heart of the criminal justice system. Vested corporate interests want to remove trial by jury to protect wealth and power at the expense of democracy. More: defendourjuries.net/about-doj/

DEFEND OUR JURIES David Lammy is proposing to massively restrict the ancient right to a jury trial by only guaranteeing it for defendants facing cases passing a public interest test. We saw this coming. It is the reason Defend Our Juries exists. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities. Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...

The Trump administration plans to review the cases of all refugees resettled under President Joe Biden and freeze their green card applications, the latest clampdown on legal migration to the US.

What a week: now writing both in defence of juries and against the military following unlawful orders. Depressing that both points are contested, but you have to take law and policy topics as you find them.

Juries are not perfect. Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials. But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having. They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.

And anyone who has watched magistrates nod-along with prosecution evidence in the mags courts will know exactly what I mean.

Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.

EXCLUSIVE: US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff advised Russia on how to pitch Ukraine plans to Trump, in audio files reviewed by Bloomberg

Is politics of climate a one way train leading to increasing authoritarianism? honestly not sure of any connection.... bsky.app/profile/kate...

So many of the problems with the UK asylum system - culture of disbelief, poor or nonexistent advice, endless delays, cruel accommodation policies - rolled into one awful case. @diane-writer10.bsky.social always gets the human stories others miss or don’t care about

By coincidence, I took a screen shot of this tweet by the Lord chancellor and justice secretary David Lammy, in 2020 when he was in opposition.

“It is an act of cultural vandalism.” on.ft.com/3XPf9aF Ministers plan to scrap jury trials in England and Wales except for most serious cases

The DOJ is asking a judge to block an effort to have Elon Musk testify in a lawsuit accusing him of unlawfully directing the dissolution of the US Agency for International Development while he was a senior adviser to the president

on.ft.com/43RWJK2 US judge dismisses charges against James Comey and Letitia James

The ethics council to the vast Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (largest in the world) has been suspended by the Norwegian government. Important & troubling piece by @martinsandbu.ft.com www.ft.com/content/f6b3...

on.ft.com/47YTi6P How to get the UK out of its economic hole

on.ft.com/3LXOt51 How UK ban on Palestine Action became a legal battle over the right to protest

👩‍⚖️ | Corruption trial of former president Pujol and family to starts today, one decade after admitting having fortune in tax haven Prosecution seek nine years' imprisonment for Jordi Pujol, but he could be declared unfit to stand trial for health reasons www.catalannews.com/politics/ite...

Shabana Mahmood is an avatar of open Britain – that’s what makes her fable about immigration so seductive | Nesrine Malik

I endured an English public school. But that’s not the only reason I’m unsurprised about the Farage allegations | Musa Okwonga

There is something wrong about public procurement.

on.ft.com/4obh5oM Ukraine has no choice but to engage with US peace plan

Powerful piece by @drrachelclarke.com on the COVID inquiry. Those who say it’s easy to be wise in hindsight are being utterly disingenuous. Many of us spoke out at the time, and it’s in the public record. @independentsage.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Newmarket MP Matt Hancock gave a £37bn Covid testing contract to Jockey Club director Dido Harding, who subcontracted it to Grand National sponsor Randox, employer of Tory MP Owen Paterson, whose late wife chaired Aintree racecourse. That's how the Tories handled the pandemic.

Marimar Martinez is a US citizen who was shot by ICE five times in Chicago. She was then arrested, labelled a “domestic terrorist” and slandered on social media. All charges against her have been dropped. In this interview she shows on of the seven holes the ICE agent put in her body.

on.ft.com/47XO8bb The new politics of autism

Palestine Action ban could lead to people being wrongly criminalised, Home Office official says

The life and limbo of a UK asylum seeker: one man’s harrowing 17-year wait for leave to remain

1/5 Caixin: "By the end of September, Chinese mills had produced 746 million tons of crude steel, down 2.9% from a year earlier. But domestic consumption slumped 5.7% to just under 649 million tons, a much steeper decline." www.caixinglobal.com/2025-11-21/i...

on.ft.com/4rofxuz Russia exploits western polarisation to ‘split us up’, warns top general. Comments are interesting.

on.ft.com/48nZG7E The man who weakened strongman Erdoğan

on.ft.com/4oVBOy6 Donald Trump lifts 40% tariff on some Brazilian food products

on.ft.com/3Kdugrg How the EU botched its attempt to regulate AI

President Trump is expanding tariff breaks for Brazilian food products, widening the scope of relief from import taxes amid growing US voter dissatisfaction over the cost of living

L’administration Trump prévoit une expansion massive du forage d’hydrocarbures offshore

Utterly chilling reporting from the Prospect and NY times on trumps war in the Caribbean www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/w...

By what criteria does China have a claim to global leadership? -Quality & consistency of policy -Speed & effectiveness of carbon reduction -Role a country plays in the global effort,inc in support to less developed countries @mathiaslarsen.bsky.social Hopkins report is cited bsky.app/profile/pari...

Earned Settlement plan when implemented will be done via secondary legislation (the rules). There will be no parliamentary scrutiny prior. Once done, it'll be v.hard to politically reverse. It's a watershed moment and will define immigration policy for at least a decade.

A federal judge is pressing ahead with an inquiry into whether Trump administration officials willfully defied his orders in a high-profile immigration case

Donald Trump suggested that the Democratic lawmakers who released a video warning that Americans' trust in the military is at risk were traitors. on.ft.com/4a0l18o