Seems this offence would be committed by civil servants who ‘dishonestly’ & ‘wilfully’ break the rules in order to get dangerous criminals into the UK. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Nick Robinson on R4 Today at 7.15 today: "non-crime hate incidents which have been used to arrest people like Graham Linehan... and Allison Pearson". It was corrected by the interviewee shortly afterwards. But how can the presenters be so misinformed? Are they doing their research on X?

itcouldbesaid.substack.com/p/it-could-b... ICYMI write about why trying to reduce immigration actually exacerbates the problems it claims to cure. Sometimes the electorate doesn't know what it wants!

If you have a spare one of these hanging around, I can recommend accompanying it with the venison casserole with port & brandy soaked fruit, which I had last night for my birthday.

These look a good 6 to me. Or am I just hoping they are?

Obviously the 2nd para of this is the worst bit, but still struck by the 1st para, & what it says about how the LOTO understands education works.

As always, the best guide to what's going on in Ukraine. This sentence seems to me a good rule of thumb (& presumably it works vice versa too), worth bearing in mind whenever there's excitement in the media about an imminent breakthrough.

No doubt the scrupulously fair Aussie fans who made Stuart Broad a pariah will be greeting Alex Carey's next appearance at the crease with a chorus of boos.

It's highly unlikely anyone would be charged with an offence in these circumstances, since they'd have an obvious defence of self-defence etc, unless clear they thought no one was in danger, & had decided to carry out their own execution. Why is the law an ass here? www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Presumably the calculation will be different for the BBC. If there’s a widespread public view that the BBC shouldn’t submit to bullying, then resisting, even if more public money gets spent, may be preferable. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Why is Donald Trump suing the BBC — and will he win?

New post just out: "The Overshoot" Net migration is collapsing, and will fall further over the coming years. We could even have net emigration. What does that mean for the country and the political narrative as we head towards the next election? (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

"So not only are Labour fighting the last war, they are fighting it with a battle-plan that didn’t actually work. It’s Labour’s very own winter invasion of Russia."

Most attacks on wokery in the public sector are nonsense, but this article makes a number of fair points. thecritic.co.uk/issues/decem...

You’d have thought the glaring Covid errors would’ve warned people off this.

Eminent historian Niall Ferguson is a fan of Trump’s foreign policy & can’t find anything in the National Security Strategy that anyone could reasonably disagree with. On the policy of indiscriminate murder, theft, & threatened unprovoked invasion of Venezuela: www.thetimes.com/article/d341...

Send the "beloved working class" back down the mines, & all will be right with the world.* (*And his wife.)

Brilliant new tactical plan due to be announced shortly by the Blue Labour masterminds. bsky.app/profile/brit...

Hopefully the Court of Appeal can resolve this issue, which IMV took a wrong turn in the High Court last year. It’s an offence for juries to acquit other than on the basis of evidence, & the courts shouldn’t IMV be qualifying that by reference to any ancient right to give perverse verdicts.

Let us just say I have an injunction hearing today solely because a Judge read my post...

@stephenkb.bsky.social recalled this quote today. bsky.app/profile/rent...

"British" & "European" here assumed to mean whites only, in the Times today, & the Standard a couple of weeks ago, as though it's not even worth arguing about. www.standard.co.uk/comment/gen-... www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Not a bad test to see where people stand, including those who talk about "saving the West": whether they think, say, Starmer's UK or Putin's Russia is preferable. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

‘Straight-talking’, but you wouldn’t get the impression from this that he previously defended the 2 child limit as a necessary ‘tough decision’, & suspended 7 MPs who disagreed. keirstarmer.substack.com/p/politics-t...

"It could have been three if Duckett held a simple chance." No! If Carey had been out ball 2, the universe would've taken a different course, & ball 4 would've been different, so in all probability wouldn't have got Smith out.

@hugorifkind.bsky.social on Your Party's founder turning on its "bureaucrats". www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Reread Handful of Dust. The writing is just brilliant, but it's tough working out what we're supposed to make of Waugh's characters. It seems that Tony Last is punished for liking the *wrong sort* of Gothic Revival. Essay here if you're interested in such things. www.connotations.de/wp-content/u...

More solid evidence of the suicidal delusional path the Government's still sticking to. Which does prompt the question why. Presumably something to do with the paranoid bunker mentality inside No10. bsky.app/profile/samf...

Thread below on the implications of the proposed changes to appeals from the magistrates' courts.

Straightforward breaches of promises to the public made in a manifesto seem to be ok, but arguable untruths to the media in pre-budget briefings apparently a big no-no.

The speechwriters are really going for the "kitchen table" thing.

Transcript of the BBC evidence session with the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee. committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence...

As KB mentioned at the last PMQs, increasing the freeze period on income tax thresholds to 2030 would breach a manifesto promise on the Chancellor's own interpretation of it. hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024... The promise has been so stretched & twisted you wonder whether it's worth keeping.

The government’s progress on constitutional & ethical standards has been welcome but underwhelming. It should go further to put the business appointments rules and the new standards regulator on a statutory basis, protect the electoral process and ensure the independence of the Electoral Commission

Particularly good, thought-provoking article here.

Again looks to have called it right (contrary to most media narratives), & incidentally revealing about how dysfunctional the US Government is.

John Rentoul’s answer was ‘yes’. Regardless of views on this as a matter of principle, what are the practical consequences? How for example do officials (including lawyers) advising ministers deal with what might be termed the anti-Burkean view of democracy? bsky.app/profile/publ...

From biblical Cities of Refuge to the Liberty of the Savoy; from Mediaeval church sanctuary to modern embassies, we continue to create places when individuals can take refuge from pursuing justice. Why do we keep doing this? open.substack.com/pub/edrith/p...

On the patently unlawful boat strikes It's hard for USGs to claim ‘mistake of law’ or ‘advice of counsel’ – when they’re firing lawyers who wouldn't sign off on the strikes. WaPo's new revelations on firings or removals: 1) CIA General Counsel 2) NSC Legal Adviser 3) CIA Mission Center’s lawyer 🧵

@harrytlambert.bsky.social interview with Maurice Glasman on his friendship with Shabana Mahmood, delight at her refugee policy, how it’s precursor to leaving the ECnHR, & views on judges & lawyers. open.substack.com/pub/somethin...

A lot of public lawyers will be familiar with this situation, albeit not many when the stakes are quite so high.

A suggestion that this Policy Exchange report influenced the Govt's decision to stick with Boris Johnson's curbs on the independence of the Electoral Commission. If so, wonder if they realised at least 4 clear errors (highlighted). policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Government by anecdote. hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025...

How will this work in practice? If you refuse to provide any means of support, do you simply leave people to starve on the streets, & if you do, do you then allow them medical support, or refuse that too - if so, how? assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/691ae0...

Highly recommend this entertaining & insightful piece, especially if you're interested in what it's like to get legislation through Parliament. bsky.app/profile/jemb...

Interview last month with Blue Labour guru Maurice Glasman, on his admiration for & links with the far right figures Peter Thiel & Curtis Yarvin, use of the military for dealing with small boats, & backing of Shabana Mahmood. www.politicshome.com/news/article...

The 4 most influential political advisers in the last 15 years (Hilton, Timothy, Cummings, McSweeney) have all been attached to or flirted with fairly extreme & eccentric right wing ideas, organisations & individuals. Is this more symptom or cause of the increased influence of such ideas?

Rachel Reeves has no good choices left. After this week's income tax u-turn, is there any way she can salvage the Budget? www.edrith.co.uk/p/reeves-in-...

This is excellent, both on the history & the current problems. Includes this, which I wasn’t aware of, relevant to the potential claim. bsky.app/profile/henr...

Interested to know how this would work in practice. I suppose BBC is reluctant to state a view openly. Could it get pushed into one? It can hardly take the view - contrary to court & congressional findings - that he didn’t incite. bsky.app/profile/publ...