Those working in the cjs know prisons cause great harm & have limited benefit to society but the conversation rarely goes further than our sector. So I'm delighted The Bodley Head who publish all kinds of thought-changing books, want to publish my book-to-be, "Imprisoned: The Case for Change".

Peace Illusions

Like a lot of things with RFK Jr if someone just said this to you and wasn’t in charge of medicine in America you’d go: ooooooookay and keep pressing the elevator button

If you rename the Department of Defense the Department of War, then bomb fishing boats in the Caribbean, and shoot an unarmed priest in the head with a pepper bullet, you should automatically be barred from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for the rest of your life.

It was two OUP books.

I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is? It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?

This is obviously the death of the rule of law, a key aspect of any democracy. It’s also the final death of the Tories as an ostensibly constitutional party and comfirmation of its move, like the MAGA Republicans, into the unconstitutional far right. 11/

In the current climate of far right hostility, Jenrick is actively inciting violence against these judges with this. Badenoch may have defended his explicit racism yesterday, but this alone should see him lose both his position as shadow justice secretary and the whip immediately. #r4today

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

‘[Lord Wolfson says:] The [ECHR] and the Human Rights Act “place major restrictions on individual decision-making at every level (civil servants, judges, and ministers) and in policy and legislative design”.’ YES THAT’S THE ENTIRE POINT

We need more of this! Well done for this leaflet with its strong message supporting inclusion, rejecting racism #Celtic I hope the invited refugees enjoyed the match #ScotlandForAll ICYMI @scotnational.bsky.social @alisonphipps.bsky.social @dailyrecord.co.uk.web.brid.gy @neilmackay.bsky.social

Back to Graham Greene again for my #sundaysentence this week: "Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in the human situation."

It shouldn't be as hard as some people seem to make out to recognise that islamophobia, anti-semitism, hate in general, all needs to be absolutely, unconditionally, condemned every time without any form of whataboutery or "but this..." etc. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Labour's "war on terrorism" continues...

Trump: "If you don't like what I'm saying you can leave the room. There goes your rank & there goes your future." <nervous laughter> Many of these US generals were no doubt aware of Hitler's notorious "Führereid", the oath of personal allegiance he made German generals swear in 1934..

I wonder what legal test will be for ‘volunteering’ - Union jacks on lampposts? Spying on a rubber dingy in Channel? Outlawing the RNLI? Bake sales for IDF in support of the (not 🙄) genocide? There is always a lower place when it comes to unhinged immigration policy. Always.

A Quiet Life

So exhausting..

I've always adored the doggy side eye thing they do ❤️🥺

I’m working hard on body and mind recovery after surgery for #breastcancer as I wait to find out what treatment I’m going to need next. #walking #goodfood #beautifulthings #cancer

New article published with a team of fantastic women Making sense of academic service in unpredictable times: exploring the risks and benefits of academic activism in higher education www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @uofgunescorila.bsky.social

Just to be clear: - Paracetamol does not cause autism. - Sadiq Khan is not introducing Sharia law in the UK - We do not have a massive free speech problem here. - Britain is not on the verge of civil war. These are not controversial subjects or contested, they're just not true.

thinking again, as I often do, about how unbelievably important it is to fart around www.snopes.com/fact-check/k...

No Words

David Lammy should reverse the proposed “democratic lock” over the Sentencing Council We need a politics that does not pile pressure on ministers to overrule independent decisions, says @drmatthewgill.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/davi...

a visual metaphor for UK politics

This is hugely problematic. The overwhelming majority in the UK reject the far right yet our views aren‘t being properly articulated in the public sphere: the papers largely support it, the BBC is a mix of supportive & supine, the government simply absent

Thank you Michael Fanone. For those who do not recognize the name, Michael is one of the officers who defended America on January 6th and was left permanently injured as a result. He is a true hero of our Democracy.

“Women are essentially stigmatised more because they are a mother…” Our latest #Podcast episode on women’s #incarceration & the impact on their children is out now, featuring @shonaminson.bsky.social 🎧 Listen now snd share lnk.to/women-beyond... #ChildrensRights #PrisonIsAFeministIssue

So people who’ve fled death & torture are going to be denied the chance to live with their families- who may themselves consequently be exposed to the same dangers- and I’d suggest not a single Reform voter will vote Labour as a result while other Labour voters will abandon them in disgust

in case anyone does want to read it here is a link: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... [£5 less on amazon/world of books]

If (at least some of) the workers can see that, why can’t Labour and the media? If only they’d read my book, eh? Hah. Or indeed consult any immigration lawyer, person with lived experience etc etc. And stop giving Farage so much airtime!

‘This is not about deporting people,’ he concluded. ‘This is about controlling a narrative and getting hold of the money.’

‘It’s just about making the European Court step in and say, “You can’t do that,” so they can splash it all over the papers: “How dare someone in Europe tell us what we should do… “We don’t need our human rights any more, because how dare someone out there be telling our government what to do?”’

While we should not get trapped in discussions about feasibility, the impossibility of Farage’s plans is important, since its inevitable failure plays another role that this man also recognised:

Even the people employed to DO the deportations don’t think mass deportation is possible (let alone moral, legal and so on)… As one of them, who I write about it my book on the escorting system, pointed out concerning the previous government’s plans to send large numbers to Rwanda:

It’s a pretty common newsroom practice to say that protests of a few hundred (or even a few thousand) people aren’t headline news because they happen all the time. And it’s largely true. What I can’t explain is why even Ofcom regulated TV is determined to make *these* protests news.

If your concern is that a white person who pleaded guilty received a sentence within the guidelines maybe you *want* two tier justice.

A new word for The Wicked to deny.

Being a person with deadly, incurable cancer who is nonetheless still alive for an indefinite timeframe gives me an interesting metaphor that helps me deal with things like large-scale corruption in government or commerce. Bear with me for a second while I try to explain.

Letter of the day (in the Times)

New YouGov polling. A monumental failure of our political class to educate, a monumental failure of our media to report fairly, for a generation

Tea by the 🌊

Me three months ago:

The Awkward Moment a Fox News Host's Mom Calls in to Tell Him Off

Sky-gazers may get a good chance to see fireballs streak across the night sky this week. Two meteor showers — the Alpha Capricornids and Southern Delta Aquariids — will reach their peak and another is ramping up. cnn.it/477CTwx

Darkly funny: signs appearing across central London, protesting Starmer’s use of anti-terror laws against peaceful pro-Palestine protesters.

This letter is already at over 1000 signatures, showing the level of support in UK academia for these students - and hopefully increasing pressure on the Home Office and FCDO. Still open to sign.