The rhetoric of “Hamas uses human shields”has been an all-purpose “get out of caring about civilian casualties” card for the IDF since the start of the war.

Has any one else noticed an increase in the phenomenon of deputy district judges and recorders jumping through hoops to avoid determining applications they have said they find difficult for (frankly) spurious reasons?

Every moment of this horror is beyond comprehension

Also, the claim "Africans were active in the slave trade" here is completely decontextualized. No one disputes that happened in some cases. What is relevant is how the right brings that up completely out of context to avoid reckoning with systemic racism and Jim Crow in the US.

Watching events in Gaza in the last few weeks, I’ve increasingly been reminded of the quote from the film Gandhi: “Whatever moral ascendancy the West once held was lost here today. India is free, for she has taken all that steel and cruelty can give and she has neither cringed nor retreated.”

I cannot get my head round the pain that seeing 9 of your 10 children killed must involve.

The idea that any form of Judaism as practiced today - Orthodox, Reform, or otherwise - reflects "authentic Judaism as practiced for thousands of years" is a complete nostalgic fantasy, just as most imagined claims for complete continuity between modern identities and ancient history tend to be.

Keep asking these questions, Peter Alexander. Bravo.

Make this make sense. 🤷🏼‍♂️

There is nothing in life so precious as the memories that we make with loved ones. To see somebody realising that their memories are being robbed from them reaching out and clutching onto their partner looking for reassurance and love hits like a hammer. #Dementia

Really hoping that Springsteen adds a cover of Peter Gabriel’s Biko to his set list.

My article on the UK/EU common understanding in @renewaljournal.bsky.social: renewal.org.uk/blog/the-uk-...

Delighted to have acted for the Charity Commission in the Batmanghelidjh judicial review. I have been surprised by the Good Law Project’s press release describing the outcome. Those interested may find it helpful to read the order made by the court and compare it with the GLP press release.

Well I have slept on it. But I can‘t get over it. "Island of Strangers“ is a horrible thing to say. And honestly, as someone who spends her professional life trying to see the British side, constantly agonising whether I am too harsh or judgemental, I am deeply upset today. (I don‘t live in 🇬🇧.)

If you wouldn't accept "we are at risk of becoming an island of strangers" from Kemi Badenoch or Nigel Farage you probably shouldn't accept it from Keir Starmer. Don't pretzel yourself trying to explain why it's ok from the guy in the red tie.

Well done Labour Anyone who thought you represented real change now despises you. Anyone who didn’t, still won’t. People who weren’t that convinced but hoped for the best are out of patience. You’ve managed to turn off everyone. Quite the achievement!

2025: Keir Starmer suggests that pressure on housing and public services is because of migrants 2020: Keir Starmer, "Poor housing, poor public services are not the fault of the migrants, they're political failure"

The House of Representatives is struggling to pass the Senate-passed and GOP leadership-backed Antisemitism Awareness Act, because far-right House Republicans are concerned it will mean they could be called antisemitic for saying Jews killed Jesus: punchbowl.news/article/poli...

Red blade = the Dark Side. I don’t make the rules.

I never get this "prestigious" or "leading" school framing. It actually only ever seems to mean "expensive". And there is zero chance of any worthwhile or serious employer these days hiring someone on the basis of what school place they secured when they were in Year Six.

Rubio publicly criticizing an ally for cracking down on right-wing extremism. And Germany hitting back. We are in a new world

Ahem

This week the @thespectator1828.bsky.social podcast had a fantastic advert for @gardencourtlaw.bsky.social by Michael Gove. Well worth a listen. Frankly, if I weren’t happy where I was and if I was willing to routinely defend the underdog pro bono or at legal aid rates, I’d be tempted to join.

When will Sir Keir work out that Trump doesn't respond to weakness? giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Alongside what doesn't look like a big swing between the parties nationally, this seems like quite a remarkable result?

It's not rocket science.

The juxtaposition between Republican enthusiasm for wide Presidential immunity and their enthusiasm for arresting judges for acts taken in their own court houses is proving fairly illuminating.

I’m rather envious of the criminal bar tradition of “case dinners”. We don’t have these at the property bar (or may be I just don’t get invited). Have case dinners always been something unique to crime or is this something that just withered on the vine for the civil bar.

The marathon is tomorrow. Still plenty of time to sponsor me via the big donate button at BillableHour.org. But it’s time for the story of my lowest marathon moment. /1

Norwegian trade delegation to their minister, confused: He keeps mumbling "I just want a taste"? Minister, decisively: It's a small price to pay. Trump [baffled and angry, looking at a huge gift basket of lutefisk, rakfisk, and pickled herring]: What the fuck is this?

Had the opportunity to share this article with my students this afternoon, and a few of my Jewish thought it was the funniest story they had seen in days.

Once again I am pleading for those who appeal to "Britain's Judeo-Christian traditions" to identify the Judeo bit of whatever it is they are talking about. The York pogrom? The expulsion of 1290? The 1905 Aliens Act?

Yeah. Imagine some guy who was clearly guilty getting off because the trials took too long and he was elected president!

This is deranged. Jan. 6 defendants were repped by one of the best public defender offices in the U.S. They were more likely to be released pretrial & got comparatively light sentences. SCOTUS threw out a bunch of convictions, which almost never happens. They got gold-plated due process!

An unsurprisingly well written article on the For Women Scotland judgment, its implications and consequences and misconceived responses to it. www.thetimes.com/article/f89e...

Would it be normal for a wealthy American to just be walking around with $3k in cash? I seldom carry or use cash myself. I either pay with a card or my phone. That seems common amongst my friends here in London. I am curious as to how far this would be considered to be odd in the US.

Here’s the gift article www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/o...

I didn’t know a great deal about Pope Frances whilst he was alive. Having read a great deal about him today, I realise that was my loss. My thoughts are with those who mourn his passing.

Trump’s internal monologue right now: “A lot of people are saying that I would be an excellent Pope. Possibly the best Pope. If I were Pope I could unify all of Christianity within 24 hours. Christ might come back too. I would be the best Pope - after all the Church has a lot of real estate.”

It’s time to retire the phrase, “when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold” on.ft.com/3RoUozD The US, not others, will feel most pain from its economic mistakes

Bertrand Russell on Fascism - “first they fascinate the fools - then they muzzle the intelligent” ….

I’m actually from a tiny (<2000) town in semi-rural PA where the biggest employer when I was growing up was the state prison. So I can speak to this one with a lot more authority than this author. It’s got almost *zero* to do with abstractions like their “ way of life”. I can tell you what they say…

May and Johnson knew all of this and yet pushed ahead with Brexit. Not doing so would mean them admitting that Russia had successfully interfered in the referendum - that it had carried out an attack on the UK and won, hands down.

For the Americans thinking "They should just accept it".... lets say Mexico invades and occupies Texas. Bombs schools, hospitals, Kidnaps your children to raise in Mexico. Russia then makes a deal with Mexico, without you, to give up Texas and just forget it ever happened. Would you?

Reading stuff like this makes me rather pleased to live in the UK with our King-in-Parliament and unwritten constitution but deep seated values, and not that “shining city on a hill” that has talked so much about freedom and liberty but for so many of whom that just meant freedom for white people.

So why are we in the UK allowing Palantir - closely allied with Musk’s DOGE - access to our NHS data?

JUST A REMINDER…👇