Evil is the only word I have that can sum up today's announcements. This is a gift to the far right - creating infrastructure to facilitate mass deportation, legitimising racism and state violence. Everyone involved in this, from Starmer to McSweeney to Mahmood, needs to go.

Some of the more common varieties of the more than 200 olives across Spain. I know most but certainly not all. Here in Catalonia, the tasty little arbequina, often on our taula. Source: lalomamarket.es/mapa-de-espana…

Hypocrisy of English/Welsh libel laws open.substack.com/pub/nickcohe...

A story of two mini-Trumps www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Delighted with this: ‘For anyone who cares about the Spanish Civil War, this book is a literary— +visual—treat. And for anyone who wants to see how history can be brought alive by going to the places where it happened, it’s a superb model’ Adam Hochschild www.hurstpublishers.com/book/travels...

Yesterday on 28 October 1938, some 200-300,000 people lined the Avinguda Diagonal in Barcelona to say farewell to the International Brigades. Some 35,000 fought against fascism in Spain. 9,000 never returned home. You won't be forgotten.

A nice piece of level trivia is the characteristically conservative judges involved with the High Court of Chivalry rejected 1189 and set time immemorial as before 1066 instead!

Chatting Trump, Musk and the radicalisation of the right with @mollyjongfast.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

A letter from the age of truth. Bertrand Russell to Oswald Mosley. We need more of this in our public discourse. Call vile ideologies and the people who peddle them out for who and what they are.

Pleased to be part of this hugely significant legal challenge. The Boris Johnson Govt first suppressed the Russia report & then refused to act on it. As evidence mounts of Putin’s hybrid warfare, it’s vital that we can be confident in the robustness of our democratic systems

The problem is that the amendments to CA 1989 s 1 taken as a whole do not create a 'presumption' The other varied provisions add up to a variety of anti-abuse provisions. They just need to be threaded together

Timeline refresh with a good news story: Eurostar are getting some double deckers, the first such on British railways since a 1949 trial. Maximum capacity over 1000 passengers so I hope they sort out the check-in at St Pancras! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

ICLR's Reportability Criteria: Learn more about how our law reporters decide whether or not a case will be reported by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales: www.iclr.co.uk/knowledge/gu...

The government is proposing to repeal the statutory presumption, introduced in 2014, that both parents should remain involved in their children’s upbringing following a separation. A report in 2020 suggested it was putting children at risk of domestic abuse. rozenberg.substack.com/p/best-for-t...

The problem with Labour only blaming the Brexit deal, rather than Brexit itself, is that Farage and Reform will do exactly the same. So with both parties blaming Johnson and the Tories for the Brexit damage, but both still promising to "make Brexit work", how can there be any change? #BlueLabour

Best for the child open.substack.com/pub/rozenber...; though I am not at all sure the confused redrafting of Children Act 1989 s 1 means what the government and some lawyers think it means...

Dame Linda Dobbs DBE shattered ceilings in 2004 as the UK’s first non-white High Court judge. A leader in law, a mentor to many, and a trailblazer whose impact still grows. #BHM2025 #BlackHistoryMonth2025

One benchmark of a democracy is whether it is willing to hold those who have served at the very highest levels to account. Can you imagine the United States ever doing something like this?

I'll go with common stonechat. My way into my French bird book is to google my expression in English and then go to the French version in my book. Stonechat foxed google, which gave me discussion en pierre

I am always slightly cautious about naming birds, generally preferring just "bird". People may assume from all the photographs that I actually know about them, which I don't.

And I thought I'd seen a slightly autumnal robin. We hear stonechats around here. I shall know better - that it's a stone-chat - next time I see one

Stonechat on a branch

The same applies to judges. I am 'wholly convinced by' the complainant's case, I 'unhesitatingly believe' Ms X. Doth not the judge protest too much? Hyperbole only creates doubt where the judge would want there to be none

On the topic of "vigorously denying". One of the first things a wise barrister teaches their pupil is to lay off the adverbs. If an allegation isn't true, say you deny it, or just say it's untrue, and explain why. Vigour is not a substitute for evidence, and it makes you look a bit desperate.

Back street scene, Hulme, Manchester, 1950 (SSPL/Getty).

www.theguardian.com/environment/... Dear Labour @labourlist.bsky.social ( Although you don’t listen to anyone except multi millionaires ) We know ppl need houses - but do up old buildings, build on brownfield sites - not these treasured spaces, You will never be forgiven if you do.

Legal challenge to Palestine Action ban can go ahead, court rules Judges reject Home Office attempt to block judicial review of group’s proscription under Terrorism Act. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

JK (Return Order Under Inherent Jurisdiction) [2025] EWCA Civ 1309 (17 October 2025): Appeal by father against order for return of child from Thailand, made on application of local authority. Appeal dismissed. www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWC...

If Philipson said that - and I wonder? - it is really silly...

Bridget Phillipson Says Electing Lucy Powell Deputy Labour Leader Will Cost Party Next Election www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/exclus...

Alan Bennett used a similar idea in "40 Years On" about that other famous recluse, T E Lawrence. "Clad in the magnificent white silk robes of an Arab prince....he hoped to pass unnoticed through London."

My latest for Prospect. There is something up here with this case. Something is not right about the official explanation - and that is leaving a gap for conspiracy theories. National security law, like terrorism law, should be dealt with seriously.

The jumble which represents a child's right to take part in family proceedings dburrows.substack.com/p/childrens-...

Morning Call: Labour has a Green problem open.substack.com/pub/morningc...

Cock-up or conspiracy? The Security Minister's statement on the China espionage case publiclawforeveryone.com/2025/10/13/c...

Good. This is an important victory. It's a stain on our democracy for Michelle Mone to remain in the House of Lords. But it's even more important that the Tory ministers who set up the corrupt PPE VIP lane in the first place are properly and fully held to account for the scandal

Two glimpses of Conor Gearty A master in promoting the public understanding of law Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/two-glimps... Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/09/two-...

If she does this, the gap between her policy and Farage's will narrow considerably. Retrospective legislation is the choice of tinpot dictators and intellectual vegetables. It means no-one could take Britain's word seriously.

SRA and solicitors after Mazur www.civillitigationbrief.com/2025/09/30/m...

Trump is crazy, and enables Farage, also, to move to the extremes open.substack.com/pub/nickcohe...

"'Intimidating' and 'divisive' England flags will be removed". South Glos Council takes a stand against all the Union & St George flags on lampposts (something Bristol's Green-led council have not done). Read the full story here: www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol...