I just discovered that in Harvard citation you *don't* italicise the case names, but you *do* italicise the statutes. This feels as wrong as going to work in your pyjamas! I don't love Oscola, but apparently, bits of it, I do.

Read Simon Cramp's review of Stephen Unwin's book, Beautiful Lives: How we got learning disability so wrong. Thanks Simon! thesmallplaces.wordpress.com/2025/10/22/b... @sime50.bsky.social @stephenunwin.bsky.social

I'm somewhat bowled over by this - my book, Deprivation of Liberty in the Shadows of the Institution, won the British Academy Peter Townsend Prize for outstanding work with social policy relevance www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/prizes-medal...

Revisiting Cheshire West - my thoughts on the upcoming Supreme Court case about 'valid consent' and deprivation of liberty thesmallplaces.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/r...

Revisiting Cheshire West - my thoughts on the upcoming Supreme Court case about 'valid consent' and deprivation of liberty thesmallplaces.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/r...

Devastated to hear about Conor Gearty's sudden death. I had the privilege of getting to know him working on statutory amendments to try and ensure the Human Rights Act applies whenever health and social care it outsourced by the state. We'll continue that work in his memory.

Wonderful tributes from colleagues at Matrix chambers for Professor Conor Gearty.

Mental health twitter - here's a totally invalid straw poll. Roughly what proportion of people discharged from detention under the MHA who are technically *eligible* for s117 aftercare actually get it? And roughly how many of these get short-term v long-term support?

Folks, can anyone point me to any key cases or guidance on the covert administration of medication under a) MCA and b) MHA? I'm struggling to see how it could be lawful under MCA without COP's powers, as you can't really assess capacity without telling someone what you plan to do...

I published an article recently, and re-reading it have noticed an embarrassing number of typos crept in. The copy-editing process was super-rushed and I found the publisher's interface really hard on the eyes, and I didn't check as well as I should have done. Is it too late to fix this...?!

This article by @johnharris1969.bsky.social on the SEND changes is why I signed the letter. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I'm trying to calculate how many people (England) are 'informal' (i.e. not detained under the MHA) mental health inpatients. The MHSMS dataset says there are 22,764 people subject to MHA at the moment, and 23,595 in hospital beds. So 96% detained under MHA. Does that sound right to you MH people?

Just reading the GMC guidance, then the NMC guidance, on consent, and really, the NMC guidance is just so scant and rubbish... That really does need addressing.

Very interesting upcoming case from Northern Ireland in UK Supreme Court - about whether a person could be taken to consent to what could otherwise be a 'deprivation of liberty' if it aligns with their wishes and feelings www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2...

Intersections of Sociology with Crip Theory and Critical Disability Studies and Mad Studies Tickets are here!!! 📣 📆 June 11th ⏰️ 9.30 - 4.30 💵 Free 3 amazing sessions, 2 unmissable keynote speakers, 1 amazing creative workshop, 2 BSL interpreters... #MadCrip www.britsoc.co.uk/events/key-b...

'Something has gone very wrong' how civil servants at DWP and governments ignored warnings over the carers scandal www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

Fantastic to see CQC and so many NGOs supporting the Sammut amendment to ensure the Human Rights Act applies directly to private providers if mental health services are outsourced committees.parliament.uk/publications... It would be good to extend this protection for children's social care as well

The Mental Health Bill 2024-25 is now in the House of Commons. Here's last night's debate at Second Reading hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025... (Much less emphasis on disability rights than in the House of Lords, I notice)

Rumours on school WhatsApp group that the government is considering changing parts of the Children and Families Act 2014, which supports SEND children with more complex needs in schools. Anyone know anything about this? Here's a petition petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71... @johnpring.bsky.social

Supported decision-making is back! Thanks to recent proposals by the Law Commission thesmallplaces.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/s...

This, by @jdportes.bsky.social is so worth reading on the incoherent and mean-spiritedness of the white paper. Excellent point that if they want to increase pay in the care sector they'll need to find the money - at the moment there are no signs of that.

"The government's argument sounds plausible. There's just one problem. It doesn't fit the facts. And the government knows it." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

There's been a lot of talk about tariffs this year. Is the UK government the only one that is looking to effectively impose one on one of its own biggest exports?

If (when) a UK university does completely collapse, there will be weeks of news coverage of distressed students who don't know where or how they can complete degrees they have paid for, tricky questions about students' housing contracts, terrible impacts on local and national local economy etc...

Blackstone: "Of great importance to the public is the preservation of this personal liberty; for if once it were left in the power of any the highest magistrate to imprison arbitrarily whomever he or his officers thought proper... there would soon be an end of all other rights and immunities."

When even the most ancient and quintessential of rights - habeas corpus - is defined as a 'privilege', that should be suspended to facilitate mass deportations, shouldn't even libertarians and conservatives be worried? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Crashing the care sector and higher education, and hospital job losses, will not win over Reform voters when they find local universities have closed, home student fees have to be increased, nobody can care for their kids or parents, and hospital waiting lists grow again.

⚠️ We need a mental health strategy to tackle the causes, rather than the symptoms, of rising mental illness. That's why we've signed this letter alongside @rethinkcharity.bsky.social @rcpsych.bsky.social @mind.org.uk and more 👇

📣📣‼️ Registration for the CRITICAL NEURODIVERSITY STUDIES: DIRECTIONS/INTERSECTIONS/CONTRADICTIONS (CNSC) conference is now open! ‼️📣📣 Sign up here: ndhumanities.com/critical-neu...

The terms of reference for the Casey #socialcare commission are published today (though staff have been working for a while). There are concerns, particularly timing, but they should offer the scope Baroness Casey needs to do a thorough job. Thread below ⬇️ www.gov.uk/government/p...

What are your marking rules this season? Mine are: 1. For every one essay marked you can send a tweet 2. For every two essays marked, you can have a marshmallow 3. For every four essays marked you can replenish your caffeinated beverage. Am in breach of rules 1, and 3 already. Back to it...

Yesterday, for reasons I won't go into, I spent three hours at the foot of a wind turbine. They are massive and majestic and if anyone wants to put one in my backyard they are welcome.

Lovely review of Skinner's new book on liberty and republicanism, if you're that way inclined www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... cc @tomoshea.org @bevclough.bsky.social @eoinmauricedaly.bsky.social

The Bureaucracy Prayer Grant me the patience to endure the rules I cannot change, The nerve to challenge the ones I can, And the wisdom to know when it's just not worth the endless email chain, paperwork and meetings.

I am on a one-woman mission to make people use the Word headings functions. It doesn't just look better, save you time, help you structure things better, it's about accessibility people! You don't have to stick with blue titles, you can change the design, but seriously, invest in learning this!

We're deep down an evil rabbit hole in the US...

Just had my final disability studies class of this academic year. Undergraduate policy, childhood studies and criminology students in their final year. It's been such a privilege and pleasure to teach them. They'll do great things! Here's their courses bristol.ac.uk/study/underg...

The published data on restrictive interventions for Seni's law is not exactly easy to use (for my students) - does anyone know of any published report or analysis on this? cc @centreformh.bsky.social Thanks! digital.nhs.uk/data-and-inf...

Labour were elected on growth and repairing public services devastated by Tory cuts. Everywhere I look there's job losses, redundancy fears and terror around benefits cuts. Now hospitals: Hundreds of jobs to go at Bristol's hospitals as government cuts hit www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol...

Petabytes of critical government research that is marked for possible deletion cannot be archived because of technical and legal restrictions, meaning it is very likely to be lost forever: www.404media.co/nih-archives...

We're hiring a Policy Adviser! You'll work across policy areas (work, care, housing and more) to generate ideas that address the challenges underpinning poverty in the UK. 📍 Hybrid (York/London) Salary: £37,546.60 (+ LDN weighting) 9 Months FTC Find out more and apply now: bit.ly/4jdaWGn

Academics and authors - has Meta eaten your work for its AI? (Probably). I asked it some basic questions about my research and key cases I discuss in it, and it gave the weakest answers. (Students take note!!) www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Similarities between 'private' (i.e. charitable) early years education, and Higher Education, institutions being on the brink because the fees they can charge are capped by government, whilst their outgoings increase with cost of living and NICs... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Yesterday, a Government press release claimed the number of people “considered too sick to work” had "quadrupled" since the pandemic (a "383% rise"). This is incorrect. In fact, it’s not even close. It's more like 40%. This thread explains why 🧵1/7

Our complaint re the growth in health benefits has been upheld: osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/corresponden...: "The statement that the number of people claiming disability elements of Universal Credit has increased by 383% presents an entirely misleading picture to the public."

Yesterday was a great April Fools day for student run papers. University sector in such chaos many seemed plausible. Apparently Oxford's new pangolin topped college is for real though.

Waiting for the day Co-Pilot can re-format a word document in line with the specific formatting and citation requirements of different academic journals. That is cognitive labour I'm very happy to outsource to an AI...

Disabled activists, disability studies and disability rights folk - does any country other than the UK prefer the term 'disabled people' (reflecting social model) to 'persons with disabilities'? Ta!