This, from @saraita101.bsky.social, is not going to brighten up this dreichest of days, but it does confront the immediate issue facing NI that we're locked in a recrimination cycle, and the Unionist parties who have the most to lose from it are pushing it hardest: www.irishnews.com/opinion/sara...

The Bingham Centre report on UK counter-terrorism law has landed. Apply its findings to anything from the Kneecap prosecution to the banning of Palestine Action and you find just how draconian UK counter-terrorism law is, and the extent of necessary reform: binghamcentre.biicl.org/documents/22...

And the moon is made of green cheese.

The threshold for property damage to qualify as an act of terrorism "should apply only to conduct causing serious risk to life, national security, or public safety, or involving arson, explosives, or firearms.”

Trump rumoured to be consulting Albert Reynolds using a Oui Ja Board for advice on foreign leaders using defamation law against UK media...

The Ivan Yates interview is hilarious in its refusal to even contemplate the key ethics issue. Media coaches can maintain the confidentiality of clients. The problem was Yates' choice to then engage in campaign media as a commentator, not a paid adviser to one campaign. www.rte.ie/news/politic...

Incredible that Robbie Gibb - most influential person on BBC board by many accounts and from journalists I speak in BBC - was involved in setting up GB News. GB News of course has breached Ofcom rules on *multiple* occasions - no sign of resignations though www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This as not simply populism, it's an extreme assault on public institutions and structures. The last week has been about the BBC, but comes alongside mounting attacks on judicial independence/the European Court of Human Rights. Treating each issue in isolation will see them killed off one by one.

I’ll add: the “dossier” here was clearly part of a concerted effort to oust the BBC’s top management. Neither the BBC nor the government response acknowledged that. It was slow, ineffective, and outdated. “Old” media orgs need to learn the new game, or they’ll die out.

You see algorithm in the title here and you think, I can't cope with big tech anymore, but upping this WonkHE piece as my weekend read. All HE institutions in the UK have their own rules on how degree outcomes are calculated & this really impacts on degree equivalence: share.google/OCpk1FP8AfCM...

Rule of law says what now (Ireland edition)?

If gave you €1 every second since you were born: You would have €1 million within a week and a half. You would have €1 billion by 32. You would never have €1 trillion. Generations upon generations after you would not reach €1 trillion. Because it would take over 31,700 years to reach €1 trillion.

Between 11am and 1pm tomorrow, join Robert Spano, Jens Elo Peters Rytter, @colmocinneide.bsky.social and @profveronika.bsky.social to discuss the future of the European Convention on Human Rights, both in Europe and the UK. Sign up to attend this in-person event at @laws.ucl.ac.uk 👇

The reality is that Brexit is a cold place full of tough choices when next door to the EU as a mega trading bloc. Either try to shut yourself off as much as possible, as the Tories did, suffering checks & dislocation, or you'll have to pay (£££) to pig-a-back on EU rules: www.ft.com/content/8963...

Extraordinary story from @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social: A London lawyer bought hundreds of Sheffield freeholds. Then the ‘very aggressive’ letters arrived. One woman: “It broke my heart, that was my savings towards a new car...He has just wiped me out.” www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/a-london-law...

Everyone gets their own article in The Telegraph, this week and any week, provided they're willing to hail the transformative benefits of leaving the ECHR, but deny the reality that parts of the UK think very little of the quality of British justice shorn of international oversight.

The NIHRC has repeatedly had to fight in the courts to be able to do its job. If the Chief Commissioner can't raise rights issues in press interviews, this undermines its (statutory) public education role. This is a key GFA institution - it must not be muzzled: www.irishnews.com/news/norther...

I've a new paper out in the Discrimination Law Association's Briefings on the distinct Windsor Framework's rights/equality arrangements applicable to Northern Ireland law, which give ongoing significance of a broad sweep of EU protections even after Brexit: discriminationlaw.org.uk/assets/docum...

The protections for philosophical belief under the Equality Act really don't play nicely with police discretion to stop and search those suspected of involvement in political violence under the Terrorism Act. A likely AG Reference coming: news.sky.com/story/tommy-...

Sometimes getting a random like or comment on a year+ old post reminds me of what BlueSky was like when there were about five of us (okay, a million) of us here, and it felt like posting into the void. Reupping for posterity, in case you missed it first time ...

Very insistent, is The Times leader today, that the Supreme Court ruling is clear. But even it can't agree what the ruling means. Snips from The Times on 4/11/25, 12/9/25 and 26/9/25.

The (adult) person next to me on a flight is engrossed in Miracle on 34th Street. Reader, I'm so not in this festive zone that I'm torn between envy and incredulity. Come back to me in a month...

When people talk about the Overton Window shifting, this sounds like a magical process. But really it means that the space for public debate is being actively constrained by publications sacking journalists who provided divergent (progressive) accounts of what's going on in the world...

The PSNI is presenting a defence to the data breach case that's basically "we can't afford a remedy". But data protection rights derive from EU law, and affected officers could invoked the EU Charter's right to effective remedy under Art 2 WF. Fun to come: www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/co...

'Study in SHAPE disciplines – social sciences, humanities and the arts – develops the skills that underpin a modern workforce: critical thinking, communication and creativity. These are not peripheral to the industrial strategy but essential to it.' 1/3

The idea that Ireland has ever "gold plated" the transposition of EU Environmental law, is causing a lot of people in my world to chortle manically.

Their Facebook page says that the Taoiseach’s officials promised them a mediation meeting on Monday. It has now been postponed to Wednesday. They have now been on hunger strike for over 40 days. This is an appalling way to treat people.

Your now near daily reminder that NI's special rights protections are not some obscure "loophole"; they were a clear element of the Brexit Agreement, explicitly agreed by the UK Parliament. Jim Allister's interventions are aimed at gutting these protections: www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/norther...

Linzi McClaren is a pretty good bellwether for the tolerance of progressive social values within any of NI's Unionist parties. Her resignation for the UUP illustrates the rabbit hole these parties are hurtling down in chasing one segment of the NI electorate: share.google/lKAhJXxqhL75...

A really sobering story about how vulnerable UK universities are to intimidation to get them to abandon human rights research. Claims by China in this report of inadequate "fact checking" should always be accompanied by mention of their exclusions from Xinjiang: share.google/KY9SxTEk3rUM...

Given Richard Dannatt's repeated indiscretions, it's surprising he still gets to spout, but the major problem with his ‘two-tier justice’ claim is there weren't effective investigations into security personnel during the NI conflict. That's why it's still spilling out: share.google/I1YJ43BzKGjP...

Magna Carta and its influence today: a debate. Had a fantastic time in the Cathedral earlier this month discussing the charter with colleagues Henry Jones, @benedictdouglas.bsky.social and @thombrooks.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS2X...

I'm saddened to learn that the reactionary legal project launched by Adrian Vermeule overseas has now found an official home in the UK at Surrey Law School (as if some of the stuff coming out of Oxford Law wasn't enough). Unsurprisingly, their first 'research project' is to attack the ECHR system /1

Folk at the Ulster American Folk Park having too much fun with the run in to Halloween, and why not when it's so beautiful...

Over the next week at The Morrigan Blog we will be publishing pieces on 25 years of #UNSCR1325 - Women Peace and Security #WPS dflw.ie/women-peace-... 1st up is @niaolainf.bsky.social on the protection of maternity in wartime dflw.ie/centering-th...

More evidence that the UK Government not only forgets that NI exists, it also forgets that the Common Travel Area exists. This is just a remarkable story of benefits being withdrawn from hundreds of families for using the CTA amid a performative benefit crackdown: share.google/NSWTG5JNYMrz...

This is the Ireland editor of one of the biggest media houses in the country. One of the truths in media ownership is that the best way to influence coverage is not to tell journalists what to do - it's simply to employ people who think and act like you. The rest takes care of itself.

It's worth adding that while the hack of 2+ years ago has been dreadful for British Library users, it is also been awful for BL staff, who cannot fulfil readers' requests and are then confronted by their consequent frustration. With no end in sight.

I 100% endorse this message. The spoiled votes are a 3rd or 4th order story in this election and disproportionate attention and airtime is a measure of the level of editorial discomfort with talking about Connolly’s success and FF/FG failure.

Seize the means of production or make some banging (Govt approved) speeches as ceremonial Head of State. Always the choice before the "hard left"...

NEW: letter from Jonathan Powell and deputy national security adviser Matt Collins to MPs about the China spy case collapse sets out that Collins' statement was seen by one politician - Rishi Sunak, in December 2023. committees.parliament.uk/publications...

I wrote a piece for @thejournal.ie about the govt's approach to the Occupied Territories Bill. I argue that diluting the OTB would be a political choice, not a legal requirement. The govt has so far tried to avoid defending this policy choice by making vague appeals to confidential legal advice.

For overseas followers: in Ireland every seven years we vote for someone to tell the Government they are a bunch of evil clowns and every five years we vote in the evil clowns.

Most people in NI are really not surprised by the Soldier F outcome - but this was no show trial or witch hunt. The judge excoriated the soldiers' conduct, but because of a passing of time caused by extreme state failings, could not convict. That is the scandal. These headlines are grotesque:

This change in the standard of proof doesn't clear up any confusion. It means that a police officer could be subject to a civil action and be found *in court* to be more likely than not to have harmed someone unlawfully, but face no professional sanction: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

NEW: Dozens of Labour MPs have written to Peter Kyle warning that upcoming regulations on how to implement rules on gender recognition could cause chaos, including significant potential costs and a “minefield” of competing legal rights. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Houston, we have a problem.

A day where law and justice feel far apart. But criminal law really struggles to function at 53 years of remove, when so many witnesses are dead. Injustice was assured when it took this long for the state to recognise its wrongdoing and start proceedings: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/courts/...

During Brexit - me & @colinmurray.bsky.social made this argument repeatedly - to the DFA & more widely. Good chaps is not to be relied upon. The Irish Gov eventually changed their advice & told people to register but the initial advice was that Irish citizens didn't have to - this was bad advice👇