Politically, you’d think kicking Truss out would be a free hit for Badenoch: terrible reputation with the public, easy way of signalling you’ve learned lessons, she’s not going to be nice about the party anyway, Reform won’t take her (and even if they did you’d be delighted). And yet?

One thing aiding Reform is a form of acoustic separation, where their explicit policy aim reaches certain audiences and others hear a filtered version sounding more moderate, aided by the listener's belief that no policy choice could *really* be destabilising; that wouldn't be allowed to happen.

This “political space” opportunity would require political correspondents to be willing to discuss policy and not just horse races, something there is little evidence of in this piece, where policy is mentioned only in passing, a subject for another time. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Whose Party? Our Party aims to stop Your Party becoming Their Party.

NEW - 'Not Proven' 🔍 🏛️ This week, Scot Parl passed the Bill which will abolish Scotland's Not Proven verdict. Today @jameschalmers.bsky.social, @fionaleverick.bsky.social, Prof Vanessa Munro revisit the argument they made for it in 2021 and crucially - what's next. 🔗 www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

I have to say I was not expecting SeagullGate to get more coverage than abolishing the not proven verdict (pic via @dennynews.bsky.social)

Find someone as enthusiastic about your future earning power as HMRC spamming me with emails suggesting I register for "Making Tax Digital", a system for which I have never once approached the threshold of self-employed income that will be required.

right! well everyone seems to want to know about that janky podcast I worked on with Morgan McSweeney back in 2018, so I wrote about it - TL;DR it was........a mess: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/so-about-t...

I had a book idea about free speech in 2015 but it fell apart when I looked into the case studies of left-wing "overreach" and realised it was basically a moral panic based on exaggerations, distortions, outlier cases and online dust-ups. There were egregious examples but no widespread crisis.

I’m not remotely qualified to pass judgement on verdict reforms in Scotland BUT I can’t help once again noticing that many of Scotland’s legal commentators have this weird blind spot on how other systems actually work. www.thetimes.com/article/d9a5...

The road to this happening has taken years and I genuinely found it very odd listening to the end of the debate today thinking “this is just going to… happen now?”

Leaving the appropriateness of using AI aside: this technique (write a detailed prompt for AI, then review, edit and personalise what it produces) doesn’t sound meaningfully quicker than just marking as normal?

God forbid a man have hobbies.

One thing that has genuinely surprised me over the last year or so - not massively, but genuinely nevertheless - is that I had assumed there was a rather deeper cultural attachment to free speech in the US than turns out to be the case.

A man in this cafe is reading the Sunday Times which has a front-page block reading “WOODY ALLEN: My dinner with Epstein and Prince Andrew” and if you’d shown me that on here I would have assumed it was Photoshopped satire.

As it is ever more clear that the right’s invocation of freedom of speech isn’t remotely content-neutral, the government adopts a position which is content-neutral to the point of vacuity: isn’t it great that there was so much freedom of speech yesterday? Never mind the message, taste the liberty!

That three major British newspapers jumped on the poorly sourced (ATF to Steven Crowder to WSJ) line about the bullets having ‘trans’ symbols (actually a, wait for it, Helldivers 2 code) is such a tell on what they really care about. They really need to apologise (they won’t)

Quite something when the US Ambassador is sacked over links to Epstein and it feels like “well at least we have a less depressing topic of conversation now”.

Every time I log on someone has posted another birthday message to Epstein and every time I assume it’s some kind of horrifying satire and every time it is not that.

Whenever a Labour MP says "I believe in the wealth tax" there's a little sensible tax policy somewhere that falls down dead.

the preliminary results of the Norwegian election are out! why not treat yourself to what was meant to be a piece on said election and ended up being.....huh.....?

A consequence of politicians being largely unwilling to say anything remotely positive about immigration - never mind making the case for it - is that the comments on this are a sea of “why not just do it?” Because if your national conversation is that immigration is an unalloyed negative, why not?

"In the de-Sturgeonisation process that took place in the wake of her resignation..her relatability, gravitas & high approval ratings were forgotten; her managerialism, insularity & lack of transparency stressed." I wrote about Sturgeon's memoir & attempt to reclaim the narrative in the @lrb.co.uk

I am profoundly opposed to surrogacy anyway but I think whatever your view this is an utterly horrifying read

Indeed. Far too much worrying about Polanski, about Farage, about the Ipsos' issues index, about individual polling, and not enough on 'how can we deliver election-winning budgets and spending rounds in 2027-8 and 2028-9'.

Faced with a public apparently very worried about small boat arrivals, I’m not sure this does anything politically other than shout “hey, here’s another route you should be worrying about!” to voters.

One very funny consequence of Kemi Badenoch’s decades-long campaign of insisting that her A-level grades don’t reflect her true ability, something no-one cares about other than her personally, is that she may be the only politician in Britain whose A-level grades are a matter of public record.

I am never quite sure whether (a) marinating in Twitter makes you think stuff like “bread is woke”; (b) monetisation incentivises you to say stuff like “bread is woke” for engagement or (c) same as (b) but you come to believe what you’re posting so what’s the difference?

If you’re wondering where Trump has gone, bear in mind there are some bangers on that TV channel he likes.

Wow. I didn’t know that. I just… you’re telling me now for the first time. He led an amazing life. What else can you say?

I regret to inform you that yarnbombing has gone corporate.

New blog 📝⚖️ @uofglaw.bsky.social researchers share insights from their new report into how an independent legal representation (ILR) service for complainers in sexual offence cases could be delivered in Scotland. Read in full 🔗 www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

🎉IT’S PUBLICATION DAY!🎉 My first legal thriller, #TheCutThroatTrial! The mutilated body of an old man is found in the street. Three teenagers nearby, caked in his blood. Each points the finger at the others. Each has his own story. Available NOW in the links below 👇

Opposition: if elected, we will create the Torment Nexus Government: our opponents are simply not up to the logistical challenge required to create the Torment Nexus and their plans aren’t even costed Media: Here’s how the Torment Nexus might just work

Experts at University of Glasgow Law led a ScotGov Justice review into the delivery of Independent Legal Representation for complainers at hearings to determine whether evidence of their sexual history should be admitted in sexual offence cases in Scotland. More: www.gla.ac.uk/news/headlin...

Product #1 of research leave: new edition of Walkers on Evidence now submitted to the publisher. 600+ pages of all your Scots law evidence needs, such as they may be, coming your way this autumn. www.bloomsburyprofessional.com/uk/walker-an...

in this week's newsletter! one of my hideously personal essays, on my long journey towards loving people and why I'll never take human connection for granted, and I don't think you should either: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/a-pro-huma... [free to read! and I'm running a subscription sale!]

Proof the filter bubble is real: I have seen dozens of posts saying aircon is essential in high temperatures and we shouldn’t moralise about it, against zero posts moralising about it (I know they’re out there, just like the heat outside is real even when you’re relaxing in a stream of cool air).

I choose to believe that when Rupert Lowe says you can't mention the war or England's 1966 win, "particularly in any musical version" he is seething that the woke establishment refused to finance his sure-fire hit 'TWO WORLD WARS AND ONE WORLD CUP' West End musical.

Just seen a viral post saying “Bluesky is going to make UK users verify their age!” followed by a second very much less viral “and if you don’t you can still use Bluesky but not see adult content on it” post.

I’m sure you can make the usual arguments about the importance of party discipline and the whip etc but if they end up with you picking a public fight with one of your own frontbenchers over the choice between abstaining and voting against a doomed Conservative amendment that does seem baffling.

A woman on a green card commits a felony in the US; is allowed to stay on human rights grounds by a judge; is detained by ICE; tells the BBC she will support Trump until she dies; she and her family believe only “criminals” will be deported; husband blames Biden. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is very good indeed. The point about reviews is well made - New Labour, David Cameron and Theresa May all used reviews to win consent and to explain why they wanted to do things. Essentially the only part of this government that does that is Shabana Mahmood at Justice:

My new Constitution Society report on compulsory voting has now been published. I argue that low turnout has left the UK with an unrepresentative electorate. This is creating warped incentives for politicians, and contributing to low growth, high inequality, and rising democratic discontent.

DUNE: LOOK AT ME I’M SANDY THREE

Ellen Wilkinson was such a good parliamentary performer. Here she is in 1925, arguing for votes for women at 21 (rather than 30, as previously).

Lots of interesting discussion on here about jury trial reduction and reform making me think of what John Langbein demonstrated so beautifully in his book; that the development of adversarial criminal trial has never been on the basis of principle.

The Independent Review of the crim courts part 1 is here. Some of the major recs from the review: 🧵 1. Rather than intermediate courts, the review recommends a "Crown Court (Bench) Division)" consisting of a judge and two magistrates to hear cases of sentences of max 3 years removing juries.