A summary and brief comment by me on today's judgment in For Women Scotland (No 3) The Court adopts an interpretation of the relevant legislation which prohibits, in all circumstances, trans women from being housed in the women's prison estate. administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com/2026/06/19/f...

In 1990, a PM with 3 elections wins behind her was challenged, forced to resign and replaced by her party within 2 weeks. The idea that 36 years later—because leadership contests must be more "democratic"—there can't be any contest at all (because it's all too long, divisive or chaotic) is bonkers.

FWS win on prisons guidance in Scotland. Prison accommodation to be required for men and women based on biological sex. ECHR arguments considered and confer no right to be housed in prisons of the opposite biological sex. Not a surprising decision.

🕊️ "Giles's contribution can only be described as unique and will benefit tenants for generations to come." 🕊️ Housing Law Practitioners’ Association pay tribute to Giles Peaker, whose contribution to the housing world was immense and largely unmatched. 👉 hi.switchy.io/wV5a #HousingLaw

I fully agree with this, it's really rubbish behaviour. I think a fair chunk of everyone's miffed-off-ness about everything is because of the way a lot of companies treat us nowadays, whether as applicants or consumers.

I love this play. It’s basically all the anxieties any newly qualified criminal barrister has rolled into one.

Today my dad and I took part in the London Legal Walk, which he helped establish in 2005. Over 10,000 walkers walked 10km to raise money for free legal advice for people living in poverty. He is 88 and I have Long Covid so we are both feeling a sense of achievement (and some aching limbs)!

My lecture is now up on YouTube if that is your preferred format! www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTA0...

It's been a tough day but enormously cheered by this Reddit thread of a guy demanding Tesco treat bananas as berries for the purpose of getting extra club card points. www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdvic...

A minor point compared to war and all that, but I can't help noticing Wells has got a cardy on here under his three-piece suit. No wonder he dreamed up a time machine, it must have been bloody cold.

If England somehow contrived to win this, it'd actually be quite sad. I know FIFA's been dodgy for ages, but since Russia and Qatar, and now with Trump, that's all become impossible to ignore. Best avoid the whole thing.

Something I thought during recent Tory leadership contests, and that's worth reminding myself of. If there are any broadcast debates I think it's important that any audience should be drawn from the general public, not limited to those with a vote in the contest.

The feeling of outrage is quite right because of the closed, privatised, undemocratic and elitist method of selection, by party members. These changes would be less contentious among the general public (as they were when Callaghan and Major came in) if MPs alone made them happen.

Labour has to try to avoid this scenario. With all respect to party members (& I've been one for most of my adult life) it is democratically indefensible for 0.5% of the electorate - whom no-one has elected, but who pay a fee to a party - to decide whether a prime minister is removed or reinstated.

In this interview, Burnham apparently said he thinks public procurement "should prioritise British industry". That's surely impossible if he also wants to make much progress in UK-EU relations.

Just remembered: I was in a bar/food place in Coventry on Wednesday evening, and asked the twenty-something behind the bar for a bitter, and she replied "I don't know what that is." She wasn't joking: she was genuinely nonplussed. So I opted for a quiet life and an IPA. I'm obviously too old.

When does a duty to consult arise in public law? administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com/2026/06/05/w...

For ages I've argued for a constitutionally active monarchy, and reviving the idea that the King is ultimately entitled to use his legal powers—such as sacking the PM, or refusing an early election. This would be a useful safeguard against the far right, and I wish more people took it seriously.

I think this is a really terrible idea, and would be disastrous for the country if tried. It'd be a massive political gift to Nigel Farage, and one that (if the change went through) would keep giving.

I’ve just finished another John Buchan novel, The Dancing Floor. An odd novel, two stories (a spooky premonitions tale and Greek Island Wicker Man type adventure) cobbled together, and a strange title, but plenty of drive and two interesting characters. A couple of what we’d now call racist remarks.

A post by Dr Lucy Series, cited extensively in the judgment

Please someone let @theguardian.com know that referrals under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme are dealt with by the law officers and are *not* a political decision. It's wholly misleading to suggest this is a decision for Downing Street. Accuracy matters. Do better.

I also think there was a tailing wagging the dog at the heart of Cheshire West. Lady Hale wanted it to be easier to identify whether there was a deprivation of liberty, and thought an "acid test" was helpful. But the ECHR case-law is (predictably) much more woolly and general than that.

A pedantic point, but how can the Supreme Court at para 53 of today’s NI reference judgment say it’s “overruling” Cheshire West? I know the US Supreme Court talks about overruling itself, but you can’t actually overrule yourself, can you? Surely you can only “depart from” your own previous view.

I’ve not been able to read the Supreme Court’s judgment yet, but always thought there was something wrong with the Cheshire West precedent, and that Lady Hale’s “human rights are for everyone” line was a really bad way of framing the legal issues involved.

Cheshire West is overruled. Deprivation of liberty law rocked to its core!

The UK has won this case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, meaning the government does not have to pay up to £100m claimed by Rwanda The court found the UK had not breached its agreement with Rwanda and that its obligations had ended with a "November 2024 exchange of diplomatic notes"

Something craft brewery taps do well is just being inviting as a place to drink, then maybe get a pizza or whatever—instead of dragooning you into committing to eating right away, or consigning you to a small boozing area. In this sense they can be more traditional than some traditional pubs.

Perhaps we should tell law students and trainees that a quick-fix easy-win way around spending pages chatting with a LLM, is to just look up the statutes and cases themselves.

If Burnham becomes PM, I bet nothing comes of his PR talk. And many who supported him will feel betrayed, as many did with Starmer well before he became PM. Members choosing leaders builds in this sort of betrayal narrative, and risks becoming a predictable cycle feeding more anti-system populism.

PR FFS.

Depressing. Introducing PR in about 2030 might well be a liferaft for Farage, preventing him from being marginalised and making him at least a permanent threat, like Wilders in NL, or more likely bring him for sure into government not long after, even on 10% vote share.

There's a real tension in political coverage between praising "grown up" decisions in the abstract and castigating anyone who tries any of them for their hopeless political naivety.

I want significantly more economic equality of outcome, and really serious renewal of places like those he mentions. But I also think this stuff about 40 years of neoliberalism and trickledown is rubbish, really. I wonder how small a minority I’m in.

I’ve not read Blair’s essay yet, so don’t know how much I agree with it. But this I think is dead right: “Trying to force the prime minister out before we know what policy direction we're bringing in, is not a serious way of conducting ourselves." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I enjoyed The Traitors India. One of the best series I’ve seen. The shoes-off moment in the last episode was great, and “the Circle of Shaq” is a very good addition to the language of Traitors. I liked the horizontally laid back Ashish.

I think this is a really key point. Doing well at these sorts of measurements is a skill in itself, and that’s what’s being measured.

Counterpoint - every political party should be committing to do this *before* selected anyone as a candidate, rather than this taking place after an election.

"It is almost impossible to view this exhibition without shedding tears, and indeed dozens of hardened journalists at the press preview were doing just that." The Nova Festival Exhibition opens in London this week. www.jewishnews.co.uk/the-nova-fes...

Call me stupid, inattentive or whatever. But what’s the difference between what Streeting and Burnham have said in the last few days about the UK and EU? Is it mainly Streeting’s use of the word “catastrophe”?

New BSB Guidance on use of AI by barristers: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/resources/ne...

Yesterday I saw a film in which a load of sheep panicking about being slaughtered tried desperately to get a hapless Andy Burnham to solve everything.

I had some bonus thoughts about masculinism over at my newsletter, including how "Gen Z boss and a mini" drove some internet users spare: helenlewis.substack.com/p/the-men-wh...

Supreme Court Justice David Souter's home for sale. The English lawyer's mind cannot comprehend how big this is and yet how cheap it is. And that's before we consider that at least some of his books are included.

Beyond the ragebait of the manosphere lies a group of thinkers who want to turn back the clock on feminism. Far from being a fringe belief system, masculinism has become the single most important force uniting the American right. My latest for @theatlantic.com: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

@zoecrowther.bsky.social Your recent piece says challengers to Starmer would need CLP/union nominations, not just those of MPs, even if he doesn’t resign so there’s no vacancy. Can you please tell us what makes you say this? I can’t find anything in the party rules that says so. @timbale.bsky.social

I think the terrible place the Tories are in is an important factor at the moment that distorts everything.

🧵 Wayback Machine director Mark Graham is thanking the hundreds of journalists speaking out in support of the #WaybackMachine and the importance of preserving the online historical record. 🌐📰 Read Mark's letter ➡️ blog.archive.org/2026/05/11/a... @mark.bsky.social #WaybackMachine

@mrjamesob.bsky.social Do they mean black (schwarz, zwart, noir, nero etc) rather than brown?

@dangreenjourno.bsky.social Your recent LabourList piece says challengers to Starmer would need CLP/union nominations as well as those of MPs: bsky.app/profile/timb... Can you please tell us what makes you say this? I can’t find anything in the party rules that says so. @timbale.bsky.social