I've discovered a new non-extreme, slow-sport that involves hunting down Ordnance Survey Benchmarks. It's like a laid back Pokémon Go I guess. I case you don't know, OSBs are marks or plates placed on buildings, walls etc to show the elevation above sea level. They often look like this...

The report was mentioned in the Guardian yesterday, worth reading itself by those interested in constitutional matters. The dramatic fall in the country's international standing & potential consequences, comparing with what's happening in the US. www.spotlightcorruption.org/wp-content/u...

Reform UK Councillor Andy Osborne was charged this morning with committing an illegal electoral practice contrary to s106(1) of the Representation of the People Act 1983. His plea hearing is at Westminster Magistrates Court on October 9th. Here’s more on him: www.huntspost.co.uk/news/2522093...

What does it mean for someone to be charged with a criminal offence? My new journal article is out this week in OUP’s Human Rights Law Review on the ECtHR's Engel criteria in the 21st century (1/4) academic.oup.com/hrlr/article... #echr #humanrights #humanrightslaw #law

Confirmation Govt plans to keep & use the power to set a Strategy & Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission, despite vocally opposing this reform during passage of Elections Act 2022

We urge the government to reconsider its position and: 1️⃣ Remove the ministerial power to set the Electoral Commissions strategy and policy 2️⃣ Put the statutory independence of the Electoral Commission clearly into legislation

Elections in Moldova on Sunday. The diaspora including an estimated 40,000 in the UK will be critical as Russia floods country and diaspora outlets with offers of money in what former deputy PM Nicu Popescu told me was a "brutal vote buying" operation by Kremlin. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

My article 'Backdoor Executive Empowerment' is now available open access published by Legal Studies. The paper identifies 6 mechanisms the last UK Government used to obstruct democratic scrutiny of new changes it introduced to expand executive powers 🧵1/5 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Explore the new GLOBALCIT Migrant Electoral Rights (MER) Dataset ❗🌐 🌍 165 countries (1960–2020) 📊 488 indicators 🗳️ voting & candidacy rights of non-citizen residents + non-resident citizens 🏛️ Differentiates election type (legislative, executive, referendum) & level 📥: tinyurl.com/yv37nj7m

Why does the Conservative Party want the Electoral Commission to investigate this? It concerns criminal offences regarding which the EC cannot issue civil sanctions. And as it happens it was the Conservatives who amended the law to prevent the EC from prosecuting, under the Elections Act 2022.

Prisoner Voting is Back! And Strasbourg is still in a right old prickle. The Court doesn't want to back down on Hirst, but also doesn't want a fight with the UK. So it concluded that the particular claimant in Hora v UK could legitimately have the vote removed: hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=002-14...

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled, 20 years after the landmark Hirst case, that an applicant prisoner's inability to vote in a UK General Election did not breach the Convention. Hora v United Kingdom (23 September 2025): hudoc.echr.coe.int?i=001-244851 Some quick thoughts from me: 1/7

A new UK prisoner voting case and the first since some have been allowed to vote post-Hirst. A convicted rapist having his right to vote restricted in the 2019 election was not disproportionate. Judgment - hudoc.echr.coe.int/fre?i=001-24... Press Release - hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press?i=....

The European Court of Human Rights has today backed the UK (as it generally does) in a new case concerning voting rights for prisoners. Full press release 👉 go.coe.int/ZTxdw The previous UK #PrisonerVoting case was closed in 2018 after the government introduced some administrative changes. #ECHR

Swearing-in of the new judge elected in respect of the United Kingdom. Judge Hugh Mercer was formally sworn in today in the Court's Main Hearing Room. He is elected for a nine-year, non-renewable term.

This is HUGE! For a lot of reasons, (it's a resounding rejection of how this council tax reduction scheme operated) but especially - a finding of a *Public Sector Equality Duty breach*!! On grounds of disability! And a warning about risks to fairness and lawfulness of automated decision making.

This is a really fun read even for non-lawyers. It’s four pages.

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/...

Scottish government minister Jamie Hepburn resigns over angry altercation with Tory leader during row about aggressive seagulls 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👇🦅 www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Anyway, if you’d like to know why abolishing not proven is the right thing to do, see here: www.uofgschooloflaw.co.uk/blog/2021/12...

A Westminster bill on postal and proxy voting sets an incredibly worrying constitutional precedent for Wales, Plaid Cymru’s former leader warned

👇 Alarming report from @josiah.writes.news on the lack of transparency about the government’s Defending Democracy Taskforce and declining staff levels. Last week in parliament we called for the DDT to report regularly to parliament on foreign interference in our democratic processes.

Many of us saw Penny Mordaunt preside over the Accession Council. But was she actually Lord President? This post unpacks the constitutional ambiguity behind her role, and why it matters. venerablepuzzle.wordpress.com/2025/09/16/a...

Good for Aberdeen City Council leaders @aberdeencc.bsky.social issuing this open letter challenging 'false claims and hateful rhetoric' and urging people not to protest at hotels where asylum seekers are living.

Interesting piece, as ever! If I may be so bold as to suggest there's a further mistake, it is the government's backing away from consolidating election law - lordseyeview.substack.com/p/cross-part...

Thoughts from me on the UK government's elections policy paper. In short: many good things, but several points don't go far enough, and there is one big mistake.

Albania has become the first country in the world to have an AI minister — not a minister for AI, but a virtual minister made of pixels and code and powered by artificial intelligence.

Leaked files cast doubt on source of £2.6m in Tory donations

"Money buys influence in British democracy" My evidence from Parliament yesterday on threats from foreign influence in British politics. Full video on the Democracy for Sale YouTube channel (Do subscribe!!) www.youtube.com/@Democracy_f...

Joint Committee on National Security Strategy evidence session today on political finance & crypto donations, looking at adequacy of policies announced in July in Govt's elections strategy committees.parliament.uk/event/24969/...

v1.108 is rolling out today 🚚 Now live, at long last: Bookmarks, aka Saved Posts. For all those posts you'll definitely plan to come back to! Update the app and give it a try. The button is right down there 👇

The Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill 2024-25 https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10180/

🚨"Is foreign money interfering with UK democracy?" Spotlight's @suehawley.bsky.social will be giving evidence to Parliament's Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy on how to close the gaping loopholes in the UK's political finance regime. Watch the session on the link below from 4.30pm👇

✨ Now published in the @scmrjems.bsky.social: our paper on the "Pathways of external citizenship: the global extension of dual citizenship and voting from abroad", with the great @sumpierrez.bsky.social! You can access 50 free online copies here: lnkd.in/dvaNmTWR See 🧵 for summary of our 📝

Interesting on proposals for reforming contempt laws in Scotland. www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/opinion/5...

The Welsh Government has been urged to “pull out all the stops” to make sure voters are able to apply online for postal and proxy votes for the Senedd elections next year

Confirmation Govt plans to keep & use the power to set a Strategy & Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission, despite vocally opposing this reform during passage of Elections Act 2022

Council workers threatened as they remove flags from lampposts

Re-posting, because this is important and there’s an updated link to the research👇 🔗 www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-09... via @bonavero.bsky.social #Misinformation #ECHR

Vasilka Sancin, the judge elected in respect of #Slovenia, speaks about her career path & the Court's important work. 🗨️"The Court's power and impact transcend the European borders and have impacted developments in many countries around the world," says Judge Sancin. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naoj...

At GCU Law, we are very pleased to be launching a new academic prize for our miscarriages of justice class, named in memory of Fife "witch" Lilias Adie and generously sponsored by the Witches of Scotland campaign founders Zoe Venditozzi & Claire Mitchell KC. www.scottishlegal.com/articles/gcu...

Today we signed an agreement with the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine to work together to safeguard democratic processes.

Katie Pentney and Ethan Shattock, "Disinformation and Democracy on the Docket: Reformulating the Approach to Electoral Disinformation under the ECHR" (OJLS, Ahead of Print) Link: academic.oup.com/ojls/advance...

Voter ID https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9187/

Election riots have history - here's an example from Huddersfield, where "disgraceful riots" were triggered after the sitting MP fell out of a window and died. Also Merry #Christmas(!) (Although this was well before the Christmas season we recognise emerged).

Chair of CSPL writes to Minister for Elections broadly welcoming Gov plans on election finance reform, but also registers concern that Gov is retaining the power to set Strategy & Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission introduced by Tories in Elections Act 2022. www.gov.uk/government/p...

Welsh election law now requires local candidates to list their party memberships in the last year. That's good for transparency re. those listed as independents. It also gives us things like this... (Abermaw, Gwynedd by-election, polling this week)

The High Court has granted permission for a judicial review to be brought against the Home Secretary's decision to proscribe Palestine Action. news.sky.com/story/palest...

EXC: A Labour peer will table an amendment to the Government's elections bill introducing compulsory voting. www.dailyrecord.co.u...