@jasonbraier.bsky.social has kindly drawn my attention to this brilliant speech by Lady Rose about the Nuremberg trials. supremecourt.uk/uploads/spee...

When I was a teenager Pope John Paul II came to lunch in my house.

There are about 16,500 in residential care now - 10% higher than 2020. Most do have more intensive needs but many could be fostered by the right family (for vastly less money). They are clustered in cheaper parts of the country meaning children are often sent far away from their original home.

My holiday reading is this excellent book by @samfr.bsky.social. Of all that I learned from reading it the most horrifying was the fact that we have left children in care to the mercy of private equity owned children’s’ homes where children are placed often far wat from family and friends 1/

Post Christmas excitement. I am first in the queue for the tip on Sat an!

Hey, do you want a doctor or someone to look after your elderly mum? Tough, Farage has destroyed even that bit of your life like he destroys everything he touches.

View from where I am mediating today.

"We're committed to encouraging people to learn the lessons of history". .... "No, not that lesson"

How many times do we need to point this out? By appeasing the far right, you do not weaken it. You strengthen it. While weakening your own position. There's a vast amount of academic research showing this. But Labour will not listen. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec...

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

No doubt Reform and the racists will be acknowledging his heritage - won’t they?

Did you happen to leave your @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk purchases on the Metropolitan line yesterday? Did one of your friends do this and send an anguished message to the group chat? If so, Darren has just done you a very good turn. 👇

View from where I am mediating today (yes, a boundary dispute).

Fans of #CurbYourEnthusiasm will recall the episode about the ‘cut off time’. When do you think it is? I get up early and go to bed early so for me it’s 9pm. I say this because I was called 3x last night by one persistent person after 9 which I consider very unsociable.

The reform party nativity scene. No unmarried mothers. No Middle Eastern people. No refugees. No people seeking emergency accommodation. And not a wise fvcking man in sight…

I spent yesterday with my 96yo father who lives in a care home not far from Katie Lam’s constituency. His carers are overwhelmingly from South Asia or Africa who have I hope IRL. They look after him brilliantly. 1/

Ray of hope here.

LAFRA J/R dismissed. Useful LinkedIn post from counsel for govt. Great news for tenants.

I am doing a remote mediation today and someone has brought their 11-month old baby, which is wonderful, but I’m not sure how he’s going to sign the confidentiality agreement…

View from where I am mediating today.

View from where I am mediating today.

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

Isn’t Jenrick revolting?

Many pundits today are pushing the line that everyone who protests the genocide in Gaza is basically either antisemitic or tolerant of antisemitism. But isn't that precisely the conflation of the actions of the Israeli gov't with all Jewish people, which is at the heart of this wave of antisemitism?

Misogyny is often precursor to terrorism.

A call for those outside the Jewish community to share a message of solidarity when Yom Kippur ends at 723pm tonight. Please do join if you can. This is an initiative coordinated by the Together coalition, talking among networks of all faiths + none this afternoon bsky.app/profile/sund...

Tory party’s long journey away from science, reason, responsibility, common sense and truth is complete

Late night mediation.

Personally, I’m in favour of a good citizenship test for all those who go on right wing demonstrations and marches, if they fail they could be re-educated in British values of tolerance and liberalism. Immigrants are not the problem.

How did the White House end up brokering a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan? In a new article for @foreignaffairs.com, Senior Fellow Thomas de Waal unravels how a shared rejection of Russian dominance in the South Caucasus drove both parties down "an unlikely road to peace."

TLDR: Make racism shameful again. While you’re at it add fascism too.

A political party, that's topping the polls, lauding someone who called for human beings to be burned to death should be a moment for national self-reflection. This is not who we are nor who we should become. Reform UK are a plague on our national humanity. We must never permit them to govern.

Day in, day out, I speak to ordinary people who are organising to welcome the asylum seekers accommodated in their towns. They befriend, support them, reach out to them as fellow human beings. That's the Britain I know, the one I see around me & we never get told about on TV.

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts. The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative. Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

I’ve been reading this fascinating book whilst on holiday this summer. It explains the Sunni/Shia division and the origins of Wahhabism in great detail. Highly recommended.

No, I am not going to leave without you I promise!

View from where I am mediating today.

I am pleased to report that the Law Society has just commissioned a 2nd edition of Risk and Negligence in Property Transactions which I edit together with contributors from @gatehouse.bsky.social. Publication early 2026.

Kudos to @easyjethelpline.bsky.social and #GatwickAirport. I took my 94yo mother on holiday to Ithaca last week and the Special Assistance at the airport couldn’t have been better. Plus I got a ride in one of those fab buggies!

What would an illegitimate concern about migration look like or is everything legitimate now?

This enormous yacht has shown up at the beach where we usually go swimming

In Ithaca

"There is no case since WW2 of starvation that has been so minutely designed and controlled" Famine expert Alex de Waal on Israel deliberately starving an entire civilian population

I have never heard of this woman before. She is now my hero.