More on the "pacifist president". www.justsecurity.org/121115/unite...

They've actually openly said they want an immigration system like the UAE, they want a human rights regime like Russia & Belarus, they want to send people fleeing for their lives back to the Taliban. You'd have thought not difficult to make a case against all this.

itcouldbesaid.substack.com/p/it-could-b... Did you know we ran a public sector deficit of 5% of GDP last year, a figure which adds up to £150billion? The public finances are in a far worse state than anyone admits to even before you consider public works backlog, gaps in defence & public services

Being reported in the business press, but I haven't seen it yet more widely. Is that deliberate? Are they seeing whether it gets picked up & attacked by the hostile media before deciding whether & how to proceed? www.businesstoday.in/world/story/...

Liz Truss confirming what was long suspected. www.newsweek.com/liz-truss-br...

Discussion here bsky.app/profile/stev...

Very good piece as usual. Thinking about this ad recently: looks like in retrospect an "if you can't beat 'em" no-turning-back moment. bsky.app/profile/dunc...

Covers ministers & their Comms teams. But while clause 11(1)(a) may look like criminalising BAU, (b) looks quite a high bar, including the need to prove harm under (3)(b). publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...

Great story, with a flavour of Rumpole. Pupillage at 59, still going at 93.

Transcript of the AG's evidence at the Constitution Committee. Interested that he considers that the UK is softer on Art 8 of the ECnHR than it needs to be, & doesn't appear to consider much value in pushing Strasbourg on it. committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence...

This is very good. I'd actually go a bit further on the briefing of the PM's comments in cabinet: not just inadequate, but cowardly, not to make the same comments openly. bsky.app/profile/jame...

Miriam Cates on the defining features of the 2019-2024 Government. conservativehome.com/2025/09/17/m...

This links back to her comments about Lucy Connolly. There's a strain of thinking on the right now, influenced by the US, that incitement offences shouldn't exist at all, or at least should be significantly cut back. bsky.app/profile/zoeg...

How all 4 positions have been taken up, & by whom (particularly interesting on the pro-Russia pro-Palestine one), from @gideonrachman.bsky.social. on.ft.com/4mjdUKU

This looks pretty unanswerable, but will the Government listen to such advice? It seems unlikely. Why? I can't help feeling No10 is stuck in a 2016-2024 mindset, where losing social conservatives was seen as so damaging, & winning them back key to victory. bsky.app/profile/samf...

What is it with the bright blue suits?

Pushing this one again given the weekend's events.

Suggestion for any parliamentarians who see this. Put down a PQ to the Cabinet Office to ask them if an assessment has been made of whether use of X is compatible with GCS propriety rules, the Civil Service Code and the PSED. And if not, why not.

A reminder that terrorism is defined in the relevant legislation as including threats, as well use, of political violence.

Somehow I've managed to miss the explanation of all this from our resident Oxford traffic & local government expert, @spinninghugo.bsky.social. bsky.app/profile/gene...

He was confronted with this last week, during HoL debate on absent voting Bill, a couple of days before he was shuffled out of ministerial post.

"The idea that the government should be able to dictate to the Electoral Commission manifestly violates the principle of electoral impartiality." Good this is being taken up. I hadn't realised one the serving ministers had spoken out against the policy that's since been adopted.

This reminds me of a councillor at a council I used to work at who got in a spot of bother for accepting industrial amounts of freebies, and his defence was basically that he was so grand and entitled that being showered with gifts had no effect on his thinking

This prescient article from February by @georgewparker.bsky.social is still worth a read. on.ft.com/3HUMxsv

I can imagine this might be tempting for the PM at the moment. (I wonder what Diella would think of my legal advice.) www.politico.eu/article/alba...

Something the Government could do is distance itself from a social media site that explicitly endorses political violence. bsky.app/profile/wall...

It’s not even good legalism/pedantry from Labour. It just says national insurance!

Remembering the shock, the sadness, & the regret. committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...

'The Greens and Corbyn to the left and Reform to the right peddle utterly incoherent, populist economic policies yet are taking large shares in opinion polls. Goodness knows where the Conservatives stand'. @pjtheeconomist.bsky.social unleashed.... ukandeu.ac.uk/what-can-rac...

I don't think this is right. As the article sets out, the statement is: "The Government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent." That's not the same as "The Government has concluded that Israel is not acting with that intent." A non-conclusion. news.sky.com/story/israel...

Former DPP Ken Macdonald has already broken ranks on the Refugee Convention, and I am sure politicians of all parties will be considering these kinds of options. So others should be analysing them too. What do experts think? derrickwyatt.substack.com/p/how-starme...

ICYMI - excellent, accessible report on the misreporting of these cases, amplified or unchallenged by politicians of various hues. Including several key facts that get overlooked. bsky.app/profile/ox.a...

Reform might as well have written this themselves. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Blue Labour as the winner. I suppose one important caveat to that is that Richard Hermer - the BL bete noire - is still in post. bsky.app/profile/samf...

How does moving ministers around solve this problem (assuming it really is one)? Is the idea that ministers can really get things done when they first arrive, before they get ‘captured’ by the civil servants? Is there amy evidence of that? bsky.app/profile/jess...

The Rayner resignation indicates that the constitution is operating well, after the turmoil of recent years? She made a mistake, the verdict was swift & sound, & no quibbling over it from minister or PM. Noteworthy that the more general elements of the Ministerial Code were relied on here.

Some people who are aligned with or sympathetic to Jenrick’s “Lawyers for Borders” movement think it would be better if judges were appointed by the Lord Chancellor as they were before 2006. Would you trust this man as Lord Chancellor making those decisions?

He is on record as now living in another country. According to media, he is due to stand trial for other allegations, that was reported as listed for 4&5 September. If Police needed to interview him on further allegations, an airport arrest on his return might be most efficient means of proceeding.

Interested in the views of Comms experts on why EHRC & Ofcom are still on X. I understand engaging with the public about what they're doing, but there are other means to do that (their own websites, other media). Significant reputational (& operational) risks in staying. bsky.app/profile/sund...

And it's worth a read.

Some impressions of Hamburg & Copenhagen.

What is Kemi Badenoch trying to say in this tweet about Lucy Connolly? x.com/KemiBadenoch...

Presumably not one of their grounds of appeal. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

British immigrant to Spain tells GB News the reason she moved to Benidorm is that there are too many immigrants in the UK And her friend says the cost of living is lower and better inside the European Union than back in the UK which is outside the EU

A reminder here, during a period of relative calm after the frenzied early days of the presidency, of the potentially huge damage being done under the radar. bsky.app/profile/samf...

Another predictable mess following the Epping hotel ruling. So what's next? The Home Office would do well to look at models from other countries. More here. 👇 substack.com/@nicolakelly...

The Epping Council judgment if you haven't seen it yet: caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/kb/2025....

This is my post from last January. No real surprises in or anything conclusive about Eyre J’s grant of an interim injunction today re the Bell Hotel in Epping. The underlying issues, political and legal, remain to be resolved. Not sure why it led the BBC news. simonicity.com/2024/01/14/a...