Charon M.D. talks to smokers direct…

Charon MD is one of Charon’s brothers…. we are not close and his latest photograph (Left) did not help me when I tried to identify him when he rang the doorbell at my Staterooms in West London. However… I am pleased to see him and… this is what he has to say:
I am conscious (but [...]

I write from West London…

I write from The Bollo, Silk Cut lit, a glass of Rioja to my right, on this last day of legal smoking in enclosed public spaces.
The rain continues to fall and I have decided to spend my afternoon writing and catching up on the events of the week. And what a remarkable week [...]

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical…

Blaise Pascal’s aphorism in the title seems a reasonable one to cite on the start of the Brown government. I eschew ‘era’, ‘new dawn’ or any other cliche - because Brown is regarded as a serious politician, who has expressed the desire to preside over a government of all the talents, return to [...]

Defections and departures…

As Tony Blair leaves office and Brown is called to the Palace to be invited to form a government, Quentin Davies MP defects to the Labour Party after writing an excoriating letter to David Cameron - the text of which is a good read.
Here is a taster: “Under your leadership the Conservative party appears [...]

Food for thought on a Monday morning…

Half an hour of reading blogs early this morning threw up some interesting material.
John Bolch and Martin George have been considering the difficult constitutional issue of whether judges make law. Martin George considers the Purity Ring case and sides with the school authorities in a well reasonaed analysis of the issues.
Simon Myerson QC takes [...]

Sporrans and other animals…

On the day when a Scot becomes leader of the Labour Party and the next PM on Wednesday - kilt wearing Scots are now going to have get a licence to wear their sporrans if they happen to have a sporran made out of dead animals. The BBC reports that sporran wearers are going [...]

Saturday news

Lord Goldsmith has resigned - paving the way for Gordon Brown to take a fresh look at the role of the Attorney-General. The Guardian reports: “Mr Brown is considering stripping the attorney of his role in superintending prosecutions and making the Crown Prosecution Service independent. Such a change would mean no government minister [...]

Saturday viewpoint: irritations of the week….

The statement by a government minister from Pakistan (later retracted) that the award of a knighthood to Sir Salman Rushdie would be justification for a suicide bomb attack is ridiculous. As far as I could glean, from the press reports, the minister from Pakistan was not proposing to carry out such an [...]

Friday nonsense…

Not rearing pigs payout…
I am grateful to a friend of mine, as it happens a good lawyer, who felt that I needed a laugh this morning.
Basically… it is a letter to the Rt. Hon David Miliband MP, Secretary of State, Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) from Nigel Johnson-Hill.
Mr Johnson-Hill states in [...]

Ineluctably….

Perhaps it is the sedative effect of the painkillers I am using… but I am pretty sure I saw a report on the net that The Vatican has issued a bull, edict, commandment… whatever… on dangerous driving!. I cannot, for the life of me imagine why The Pope feels that he should pass [...]

Live televised CPD on the net…

Live CPD online with questions
LegalPractitioner.co.uk, in association with LegalTraining.tv successfully completed their first live broadcast to the net at 1.00 today. Lee Bennett of Bivonas talked about The Fraud Act 2006 and Money Laundering legislation.
This is part of the future - CPD live, at your desk top, with the ability to ask questions live. [...]

Strange days…

It is but 8 days before The Lord Protector leaves office to be replaced by The Wuthering Height and then, on the 1st July, the smokers will be crowding the pavements.
I explained to a barman at The Bollo the other day that the new No Smoking legislation applied also to non-smokers and that [...]

It’s been a hard day’s blog….

The image, sadly, is a fantasy and is not my reality at the moment in terms of leisure - but it struck me as a reasonable metaphor for the isolation and pleasure of blogging!
Rock around the blogs
Barrister blog has a fetching pic of Gordon Brown dressed up as a Stalinist dictator and wonders what [...]

Lords to decide issue of Iraq war legality…

Martin George has picked up on a matter of great importance - the legality of the Iraq war.  The Lords are to hear an appeal brought by the families of two soldiers killed in Iraq.
Guardian story 
Martin’s comment on this matter

Flashing judge…

The Mirror reports this morning that Lord Justice Richards, cleared of flashing on trains last week, has been accused of exposing himself to two other women, it emerged yesterday. British Transport Police will now interview Sir Stephen about these allegations.
(As far as I can ascertain, from a quick tour through the online versions, mainstream [...]

A quibble of lawyers?….

The Independent, today, had a feature about collective nouns.  The suggestion for lawyers is ‘ a quibble’.
Here is the piece from The Indie if you missed it:
A quibble of lawyers
As in: “Rupert is one of that select quibble of lawyers whose earnings top £5m per annum.” (Winner: Paul Powney)
Lawyers lie somewhere between MPs [...]

Ask the doctor…

I am pleased to welcome Dr Davina Charon, a cousin of mine, who specialises in cosmic ordering, neuro-linguistic programming and giving advice. She has been a guest agony aunt on several give away supermarket style magazines, so I have invited her to guest as an agony aunt on my blawg from time to [...]

Advice is the curse of the drinking classes…

Racking my brains for a topic to interest weekend readers…. I felt I was on a pretty safe wicket raising the question of wine drinking and, indeed, drinking in general - and, unlike other activities reported in the Press this week, it generally only requires the use of one hand.
The New Cromwellians, advised by “Dr [...]

Richards LJ cleared….

Lord Justice Richards has been cleared of the charges of indecent exposure. The BBC report states:
“City of Westminster magistrates said the evidence to identify Sir Stephen was insufficient…They said in the absence of any evidence supporting the judge’s identification and “for this reason only” they could not be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt.”
The District [...]

Podcast 23: Peter Crisp, CEO of BPP Law School on the GDL, LPC and BVC…

Today I talk to Peter Crisp, Chief Executive of BPP Law School.  BPP is a private sector law school, founded in the early 1990s, and has grown to be one of the largest of the vocational law schools in the UK with branches in London, Manchester and Leeds.
BPP runs full and part-time courses for [...]