"In the most extreme case, our model achieved the top rank on a standard chest X-ray question-answering benchmark without access to any images." Well this isn't good 😮 arxiv.org/abs/2603.21687

🎧 In this week’s episode: the legislative “wash-up” + listener questions 📊 Why are MPs submitting so many more Written Questions than before? ❓ What is a “dilatory motion”? 🏛️ What's the interplay between party and parliamentary rules in the Commons? Link in post below 👇

How on earth had I missed this before now? (h/t @financialtimes.com; source: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...)

Not to be an alarmist, but I've just subscribed to the RSS for statutory instruments enabled by powers delegated by the Energy Act 1976. One can never to be too sure. api.parliament.uk/procedure-br...

Ok. My understanding of the electoral fraud situation is this. 1. Democracy volunteers put out a statement at one minute past poll close. They said this was at a level they’d not seen before

Votes this evening?! I didn’t think they were actually going to do this… 🤯

Weird to think that Liza Minnelli and Dusty Springfield were respectively only 43 and 50 when they made their comeback records with the Pet Shop Boys. At the time they felt like ancient ghosts of showbiz past. The equivalents now (in age if not in stature) would be Cheryl Tweedy and Emma Bunton.

In 1975, Roy Jenkins advised the Queen to grant the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition the title 'royal.' The Palace returned his submission. My post looks at what this reveals about the reality of royal influence in the British constitution. venerablepuzzle.wordpress.com/2026/03/23/w...

If you ever think your legislature is having a bad day, this was a Monday in Texas in 1969

There was once a government contract - standard terms and conditions I was told, combining the wisdom of many - and it had no service obligation, no payment obligation, three provisions regarding death and personal injury, and a Y2k remedy nearly a decade after 2000. AI contracts remind me of this.

Having now read the judgment, this is an imp decision, confirming the const status of Acts of the Senedd & their immunity from challenge on (common law) procedural grounds. A rare and welcome example in recent devo jurisprudence of reasoning from first principle. www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...)

FAO @secondmentions.bsky.social Elton John – “the portly troubadour”.

Today's Canadian parliamentary history - March 21, 2000: A mistrial for the man who threw paint-filled balloons at the PM's office on Parliament Hill after the jury was shown news broadcasts that, inter alia, made mention of when the defendant was choked by the Prime Minister.

On World Poetry Day, here’s a reminder of the power of poetry and its potential to change the world.

OSCOLA 5th edition is out www.law.ox.ac.uk/oscola Changes spotted so far include: Adding Medium before Neutral Citation Not putting JSC (or SCJ) after UKSC judge’s names (CJ, MR, V-C, LJ, J, & DJ remain; ICC also there but no EJ) The end of Ibid More on web sources - and how to cite Gen AI

The Stamp Act: statutes.org.uk/site/the-sta... The repeal: statutes.org.uk/site/the-sta... #History #LegalHistory

Senedd Cymru (Members Accountability & Elections) Bill passed today with a new recall law; & 'world first' law on 'political lies' in form of a duty on Welsh ministers to make regulations prohibiting false or misleading statements of fact/deliberate deception in elections.

There is very unlikely to be anything to vote on. Changes will be implemented via the immigration rules - secondary legislation subject to negative procedure. People (especially MPs) need to understand this. The Home Secretary is operating unchecked.

Okay, this is a little too on the nose.

92 hereditary peers are set to lose their seats as a 'temporary' compromise that endured for over a quarter of a century comes to an end. You can read my thoughts on the bill and why comprehensive Lords reform will likely remain elusive here. venerablepuzzle.wordpress.com/2026/03/17/f...

I just happened upon my Scottish grandfather’s school magazine from 1935 and hoo boy does the column 'Some Observations upon New Germany' take some twists and turns...

For the first time in a long time, parliament has killed a legislative measure passed by the Church of England’s #Synod. I wrongly assumed as time passed, parliament would take less of an interest in the workings of the Church, so I welcome hearing from MPs and peers how we should go forward!

Removal from the Privy Council, 18th-century style [PC 2/127]. Since each volume of the Privy Council Register began with a list of Privy Counsellors, Flood's name was struck out multiple times (though it was left untouched in some of the earlier lists). 1/2

Things You MUST NOT DO In Covent Garden A look at the old market byelaws painted on boards at Covent Garden. londonist.com/london/histo... #LegalHistory #London

NEW BRIEFING | The risks of consigning online safety law to delegated legislation Our latest briefing examines two late-stage government amendments, giving Ministers significant powers to reshape online safety legislation. 🔽 www.hansardsociety.org.uk/publications...

55. The State of Idaho’s name is completely made up. Unlike states which are named after royalty or native American words, Idaho was just a made-up word a congressional committee quite liked.

Hansard - March 8, 1994

Please watch this short film by Together, an organisation working for the full inclusion and celebration of LGBTQIA people, disabled people, GMH people, and so on, in the Church of England. I burst into tears halfway through … youtu.be/xcSHRh6l2EE?...

New blog post: What's the source of Einstein's "citizen of the world" quip? https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/03/whats-the-source-of-einsteins-citizen-of-the-world-quip/ I like digging through old archives and tracing my way through quotes. Here's a particularly good one from Albert Einstein which …

Today in Canadian parliamentary history - March 8, 1871: The Senate briefly went into secret session... but why? Well, the press reports an ongoing senator-MP feud. The MP showed up to the Senate gallery and the spiteful senator demanded clearing the galleries to banish his MP foe :p

What a waste. It is right to remove the hereditary peers, but this government could have been much more ambitious with its Lords reform plans. For instance, the public greatly supports overhauling the appointments process, as we at @conunitucl.bsky.social explored 👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo....

Via, but of course, an old friend, a tale of sending email to the future: www.scientificamerican.com/article/forb... - I am not at all surprised at how the thing actually succeeded

Very British Problems. After accepting the Provostship of Eton, Lord Hugh Cecil expressed concern that his attendance at the Church Assembly and the Coronation might conflict with Eton's residency requirements. It's not clear if No. 10 responded [PREM 5/586/6]. 1/2

🚨 NEW EPISODE is now LIVE 🚨 - Parliament and war powers - Ermine endgame - the Hereditary Peers Bill is back - MPs pay 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts: buff.ly/Fmh0cAo

If anyone is interested in applying, the job of Clerk of the House of Commons comes with a £225,000 annual salary but also the legal responsibility for the safety of everyone on the parliamentary estate and no actual power to get MPs and Peers to agree to address the massive fire and flood risks...

The Speaker has announced the resignation of the Clerk of the Commons, Tom Goldsmith, with a successor to be identified by summer recess. So, it's a good time to read @marcgeddes.uk & me on the challenges of this job and the chaotic recruitment process in 2014 🙌 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The ministerial payroll will be increased under reforms being unveiled on Thursday, reports PolHome Editor @adampayne26.bsky.social The Labour government will argue it's not right that some ministerial positions continue to favour those who have the financial means to afford to do them unpaid

1/ Tomorrow (4 March), MPs will vote on in-year spending changes the House of Commons Library calls “significant by historical standards”. Through the Supplementary Estimates, the Government is seeking an extra £36.9bn in day-to-day spending – a 6.8% increase on last Summer’s plans.

It's probably this and everyone should read it. jwmason.org/slackwire/po...

“The beloved fictional serial killer” 🫣

Amazing vox pop on the 6 o’clock news. Woman buying fish in Waitrose: ‘I won’t buy mackerel if it’s being overfished’. Reporter: ‘But you’re buying it now’. Woman: ‘Well, it’s already dead’

A very quick bit of research, using this table statutes.org.uk/site/collect... to see how much material from the Interregnum (1649-1660) is in the English Reports. Answer: not a lot, seemingly just vol. 82, King's Bench 11, has reports from that time.

Posting again my article on the 1993 Christchurch by-election as voters go to the polls in Gorton & Denton today. Fascinating reflections from the two main candidates Diana Maddock & Lord Hayward in our interviews. Seems like today's vote will be much closer! historyofparliament.com/2026/02/24/c...

NEW BLOG: The Representation of the People Bill: contours of the debates to come Ahead of the bill's second reading on Monday, @alanrenwick.bsky.social covers 'astonishing weaknesses', an idea that is 'indefensible in a democracy' and another 'breach of such a basic democratic principle'.

Why is the design of social media so corrosive of the relationship between citizen and state? And what can we do, before it's too late? Great to be back in the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social developing the argument in my new paper for @demos-uk.bsky.social

An important reminder (that there are insights to be gleaned from the UK's different jurisdictions as the UKSC is due to hear the Campbell appeal later this year) from one of the leading authorities on UK Law Officers 👇

Good morning. Radio 4 Extra are celebrating the centenary of Kenneth William's birth. At 10.42am you can hear his version of Nikolai Gogol's, incredible "Diary of a Madman", a story which directly influenced Chris Morris & Robert Katz's Rothko monologue/My Wrongs film www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle. It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...