A grand ambition is needed to fix the housing crisis Charlie Winstanley’s book Bricking It: The UK Housing Crisis and the Failure of Policy is published today, Here the author introduces some its main themes. The UKs housing crisis is perhaps the single largest failure of domestic policy in…

Garden Ct's Liz Davies KC @lizdsocialist.bsky.social to speak at Housing Law Practitioners Association (HLPA) Meeting on Renters Rights 🏘️⚖️ 📅 17 September 2025, 6.30PM 📍 University of Bristol Law School Find out more about our #1 ranked #HousingLaw team 🔗 gardencourtchambers.co.uk/areas-of-law...

Another resignation rocks Starmer Yesterday Paul Ovenden resigned as Keir Starmer’s Director of Political Strategy after details emerged about sexually explicit messages he sent to colleagues about Diane Abbott MP in 2017. The reaction to this story exposes something rotten about the British…

How long has Keir Starmer got? The last fortnight has seen a complete transformation of the situation in the Labour Party. If a week is a long time in politics, for Keir Starmer the period since he promised a Government reset that would bring “delivery, delivery, delivery” must seems like an…

Garden Court Chambers mourns the loss of Professor Conor Gearty KC (Hon). Conor was a shining light in civil liberties and human rights for decades through his work as a lawyer, as an educator, and as a thinker. Read on ▶️ gardencourtchambers.co.uk/garden-court...

Garden Court's Adrian Berry KC writes in new Cosmopolis blog: 'The ECHR & UK international relations'💡📝 "To contend that #ECHR withdrawal is a simple act without consequential effect is simply to blind oneself to international political reality..." Read here 🔽 tinyurl.com/4h4zh9jm #HumanRights

‘The deputy leadership contest must be an open, honest and democratic debate about Labour’s direction’ labourlist.org/2025/09/bell... – via LabourList

Even a quick Deputy Leadership race holds real dangers for Keir Starmer labourhub.org.uk/2025/09/08/e...

Excellent article in Guardian from John McDonnell MP Don’t sugarcoat this: Starmer’s government is weak and may perish. Here are my five steps to recovery John McDonnell www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

🌟🎓 ‘Change Maker’ Oscar Davies shown alongside fellow KCL distinguished alumni🎓🌟 Since being honoured with King’s Distinguished Alumni ‘Change Maker’ Award, Oscar Davies’ image features at the main entrance of @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social. 📖 Read more: gardencourtchambers.co.uk/oscar-davies...

WOMEN AGAINST THE FAR RIGHT I’m sharing this letter I have co-signed. “There is no evidence that people seeking refuge are more likely to commit acts of sexual violence. Many are themselves survivors of violence, war, and persecution. Blaming them distracts...” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

14 MPs sign open letter to PM urging him to set up fast-track service charge dispute resolution Fourteen MPs led by Rachael Maskell MP have sent an open letter to Sir Keir Starmer MP, Angela Rayner MP, and Matthew Pennycook MP urging them to launch a fast-track and fairer dispute resolution scheme…

Love & solidarity to them.

Where are they? ¿Donde estan? labourhub.org.uk/2025/08/30/w... Today is the international day of the disappeared. This important and moving article by Helia Lopez sets out why we need such a reminder. We cannot even say never agsin: repressive regime across the world continue to " disappear" people

Today we were out campaigning to boycott Barclays in Colchester as part of Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s Boycott Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Campaign. The conversations brought back memories of our stand against Apartheid in South Africa during the 1980s. www.palestinecampaign.org

Hard agree with @davidkr.bsky.social here. Moreover shouting at them that the flags are tainted by imperialism and colonialism (heard in Bristol), while true, hardly wins over the average bystander to our side.

Important explanation of realities of Home Office decision making.

More summer reading: Norman Lewis’s writings Mike Phipps reviews A Quiet Evening: The Travels of Norman Lewis, selected and introduced by John Hatt, published by Eland. Travel writing has fallen out of fashion in recent years. That’s partly because the war on terror at the start of this century…

Legal Action Spotlight Nick Bano of @gardencourtlaw.bsky.social on what social justice lawyers need to know following RHZ v Sutton. 'It is useful and invigorating that there is now a clear route for including discrimination points in homelessness challenges.' ➡️ Read here swiy.co/h6eS

New party, new vision, new culture? Mike Phipps considers some strategic questions facing the Corbyn-Sultana project. The announcement of a new party of the left headed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana is, as former top Corbyn advisor Andrew Fisher said recently, “potentially very significant…

This matters.

Introducing: The Starmer Symptom A new book on Keir Starmer’s leadership is published today. Editor Mark Perryman introduces the book with this edited extract from it. " The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety…

Why I sat in Parliament Square and risked arrest for Palestine Action eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/act...

The Epoch of Reaction The attack on trans rights is part of a broader right wing offensive and can be resisted by unifying all the struggles against it, argues Alex Burt. Throughout the election campaign last year, progressive and socialist voters were repeatedly told we were to vote Labour to…

Socialist Feminist Lynne Segal of Beyond the Fragments fame is the latest guest on the Labour Left Podcast. To see the full episode go to YouTube, Audible, SubStack or your favourite podcast site and just search for the Labour Left Podcast. Links in replies 1/2

⚖️📣 Celebrating 50 years of Doing Right, Fearing No One - Digital Publication Available to Read! 📣⚖️ This unique publication profiles 50 important cases of the last half century & aims to inspire defenders of equal rights & justice for all. Read it here 🔽 gardencourtchambers.co.uk/wp-content/u...

📣 Lily Lewis joins Garden Court as new tenant 📣 We are delighted to announce that Lily Lewis has joined Garden Ct. Lily specialises in Inquests & inquiries, human rights, equality & discrimination law, JR & action against public authorities. Read on 🔽 gardencourtchambers.co.uk/lily-lewis-j...

Remembering Vince Gillespie 1948 to 2025 By Jane Connor Today is the funeral of my dear friend and comrade Vince Gillespie, who died on 22nd June after a short illness and a long life of struggle, joy and history-making. labourhub.org.uk/2025/07/14/r...

Courtenay, Lightly Upon the Wing – A Tribute to Courtenay Griffiths KC by Sean Horstead Courtenay Griffiths KC sadly passed earlier this month. All of us at Garden Court offer our deepest condolences to his family, and are honoured to share a poem by Sean. Read here: tinyurl.com/5xeyspnw

My brilliant friend & colleague.

A check-up for the NHS By Dr Rathi Guhadasan On the NHS’s 77th birthday, with Labour marking one year in government yesterday and Thursday’s publication of the “10-year plan”, what better time to give the NHS its own health check? Ending the junior doctors’ strikes? Certainly, removing the Tories’…

Will protesting against proscription be treated as support? Will supporting those arrested for protesting against proscription be treated as support? Will supporting those arrested for supporting those arrested for protesting against proscription… www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Corbynism Redux labourhub.org.uk/2025/07/05/t...

I support Palestine Action. I hate all forms of violence. I wish no harm on anyone. I just want a kinder, fairer, greener world. Apparently this makes me a terrorist. But I am the opposite of a terrorist.

Read @johnmcdonnellmp.bsky.social on how the democratic deficit in Labour led to this debacle: "...parliamentary selections in many cases have been ruthlessly fixed to parachute allies of the elite into safe seats that often they rely upon a satnav to find." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

🎪📣 This Saturday, Marc Willers KC (@marcwillerskc.bsky.social) is speaking at #GlastonburyFestival's Atchin Tan 2025 📣🎪 Atchin Tan celebrates Romany Gypsy, Roma, Irish Traveller & Traveller cultures, located in #Glastonbury's Theatre & Circus field. 🛞 Full programme 🔽 atchin-tan-glastonbury.org

Palestine Action – what will you do? By David Renton On Monday, the House of Commons will vote for the proscription of Palestine Action. The House of Lords will follow later in the week. By July 4th, the group will be named on the list of proscribed organisations, alongside Al Qa’ida, Hamas and…

Courtenay Griffiths KC, our former colleague, sadly passed away this week. All of us at Garden Court offer our deepest condolences to his family. Courtenay was the personification of Garden Court’s motto: “Do right. Fear no one.” He will be greatly missed. gardencourtchambers.co.uk/in-memory-of...

🚨 Today, Liz Davies KC (@lizdsocialist.bsky.social) of Garden Court #HousingLaw Team presented evidence to the Local Government & Housing Committee in the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) on the Homelessness & Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill. Read on here 🔽 gardencourtchambers.co.uk/liz-davies-p...

Amid rising world tensions, why we must once again oppose campism Socialists should not support rival camps in the world today, but oppose all authoritarianism and instead advance democratic and social rights to inspire hope and mobilise support, argues Mike Phipps. “The Times They Are-a-Changin:…

🏡Building Together: Bridging the Gaps in Housing Justice, 13 June 💡 Understand how to prepare and plead Equality Act cases that are judge-proof; hear from HHJ Tracey Bloom CLCC and Sarah Steinhardt of @doughtystreet.bsky.social 👉 Book your place today: tinyurl.com/LAGBT1306

Building Together: Bridging the Gaps in Housing Justice, 13 June Why you need to book today: The Renters Reform Act is nearly here – come & find out all you need to know from the brilliant @lizdsocialist.bsky.social ‬ & ‪‬@darlingtom.bsky.social of @rentersreformco.bsky.social with chair Nick Bano.

🏠 Our annual housing conference is coming up! Building Together: Bridging the Gaps in Housing Justice 📅 13 June at BPP University, sponsored by @gardencourtlaw.bsky.social 🗣️ Meet our amazing speakers who will inform and inspire delegates in the fight for housing justice. 🎟️ tinyurl.com/LAGBT1306

The utterly intolerable failure to act of Keir Starmer Tom London condemns the Prime Minister’s performative policy on Israel. One week ago, Keir Starmer described the situation in Gaza as “utterly intolerable”.He spoke as if he understood the moral imperative to act with the utmost urgency to do…

& me. Share the pride.