Time for some weird stuff…

Giant penis etched into school garden with weedkiller can be seen from space. Sky has the story: “The unnamed pair of Year 11 pupils from Bellemoor School for Boys in Southampton, Hampshire, burnt the 20ft phallus into the grass as an end of term joke two years ago.”
Eye on the ball…
A Police officer, who was [...]

Punctuation… it is useful….

One for drafting ‘aficionados’…
Notice the effect of the following Dear John love letter with different punctuation:
Dear John
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful.
People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior.
You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for [...]

Mirror…mirror…

After a run of bad luck (Motorbike accident with nasty injuries, tree hitting my house and tearing down all the phone lines, and falling down the stairs; breaking three toes) I have been telling people that I must have broken a mirror recently or at some point in my past.
Here is a mirror breaking story [...]

Incredible….

Sasuke is an astonishing athletic test held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. Competitors have to complete four levels of increasing difficulty and increasing danger. I have never seen anything like it - a truly incredible test. Only two men have ever completed the course. Here is Makoto Nagano (33) doing [...]

ASBOMan…writes…

It is important that all sectors of the community, interested in the English legal system, are given an opportunity to respond to the current crisis on prison capacity.
Tonight I was able to talk to the secretary-general of the newly formed ASBO Holders Association (AHA) who invited me to a secret location in London.
With [...]

Anyone able to explain this paradox?…

The question is this: Why was a prison place available for a News of The World reporter (jailed for 4 months for plotting to hack into phone messages of Royal aides. The Sun) - yet no prison places were available for two paedophiles recently convicted, yet released by the judge (albeit, one [...]

The President of The United Kingdom of Great Britain! …

Hail to the Chief …. a state of the union, Friday night, peroration / rant… whatever….

Primus inter pares is clearly a doctrine which Lord Protector Blair has not been that interested in for some time - but one cannot help but admire the fact that he is (a) still PM (b) is taking all the [...]

Something for the weekend?…

It is Friday…the day is done… and here, in remembrance of a brief snowfall in London this week, is a film which demonstrates how not to drive in the snow. Crazy!
If you fancy your own business card and can’t be bothered to sit down and design it in Photoshop - let this tool do [...]

The prisons are full…so don’t do it again….

From The BBC website: “A man who downloaded child pornography to his computer has avoided jail after the home secretary asked judges to limit prison terms due to overcrowding. Judge John Rogers QC gave Derek Williams, 46, of Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, a suspended sentence. The judge at Mold Crown Court said he was “bearing in [...]

Winner January caption competition…

Winner of January Caption Competition There were quite a few entries…
“Nice job of cleaning up the Stockwell Tube Carriage Sir Ian. Now, about this politically damaging ‘Independent’ Police Complaints Investigation ‘Lord’ Blair!
Comment by James Lawson — Friday, January 5, 2007
James… if you contact me and let me know which set of lectures you would like…
Charon [...]

Caption Competition sponsored by The Carbolic Smokeball Company!…

The Carbolic Smokeball Company has generously agreed to provide the prize for my latest caption competition. If you win, you will be given the barrister figurine pictured, a tasteful addition to any desk or bookshelf.
Have a look at The Carbolic Smokeball Company website - a surprising amount of ‘legalabilia’.
Consilio will also provide a prize [...]

Charon conducts an imaginary interview with The Home Secretary

Cue: The Great Escape theme tune….music fades
Charon: Good morning, Home Secretary. Thank you for spending time out of your eighteen f******g hour a day schedule to do this interview.
An aide comes into the room at this point with the latest statistics on escaped prisoners. Reid glances at the paper quickly and snaps “Heads will [...]

Student round up….

I thought it was time for me to post info which may be useful to law students
From Legal Week: The College of Law’s Legal Practice Course (LPC) has been given the Law Society’s top grade in all five of its centres around the UK. The College’s centres in Birmingham, Chester, Guildford, London and York each [...]

Custody in domestic violence cases?…

I have a number of Australian friends - who are thoroughly enjoying the comic opera one day cricket which follows on from The Ashes.
This is the latest bit of ’sledging’ from my Aussie ‘mates’ : It has the merit of bringing in a legal theme!
“Federal Court Ruling from the Melbourne Age, Australia (AP) - A [...]

Snow in London…

I woke, as usual, at 3.30 am to the not so familiar almost muffled sound of silence. I knew at once that it had snowed and looked out of my bedroom window. Snow covered my conservatory roof and garden. Bizarrely, I wondered if it might have snowed on the other side of [...]

Sorry… but could not resist…

OK… no more BB comments from me… but I just could not resist.
So… I am back online. BT engineers arrived again this morning with a ‘hoist’ : a van with a crane to winch the engineer up the side of buildings… and I am back with telephones and a good net connection. It made [...]

Maybe I should be a personal injury lawyer!…

Shortly before Christmas I was invited by Tim Kevan to write a short piece each month for the Personal Injury Brief Update Law Journal.
Relieved that I did not have to dig out the law books (Tim confirmed that he did not actually want me to write about the law) I agreed to do this.  In [...]

A flashing beacon of justice?…

I read two newspapers on Sundays - The Observer and The News of The World. I was into my second cup of espresso when I turned to page 11 of the News of The World. “TOP JUDGE NICKED FOR FLASHING” ran the headline.
I read this article with particular care and, because of the [...]

English judge to enter Big Brother house?….

It is rare for me to have ‘Road to Damascus’ moments - but, it did occur to me, in the wake of the absurdity of the Jade Goody episode (infra), that lawyers may have done something bizarre this week and that I should surf the net to see whether lawyers were behaving sensibly. [...]

Policing on the cheap…

I was having an espresso and smoking a Silk Cut when I saw two proper uniformed coppers patrolling Chiswick High Street. They did not have much to do. The burglars were elsewhere in London, the banks were not being robbed and, as far as I could see, all was well in Chiswick. It [...]