Mr Pineapples quakes me to the earth’s core…

I rose, like Lazarus, from my futon to check my emails / blog at 8.30 pm this troubled night… I was dehydrated…  after deciding to have an early night watching the Parliament Channel and various news channels… only to find that I had been called to account by the Ralph Nader of the Net, [...]

A very British earthquake…

The Telegraph reported today: “Earthquake Shakes Britain but damages very little”
By Nick Britten Paul Stokes and Richard Alleyne of The Telegraph:
“It was, ultimately, a very British earthquake: no collapsed buildings or bridges, no death or mayhem”
However… just in… a report sent to me by a friend of mine this morning…. you may have seen [...]

Would you like some free CPD?

Would you?…
legaltraining.tv are offering 4 hours of free CPD….
Today legaltraining.tv are launching their FREE CPD portal - Obtain 4 CPD points at no charge. You can’t really get a better offer than that. Free courses - Jonathan Goldberg QC on Advocacy, Professor Bill Rees on The Companies Act 2006, Dr John Birchall on [...]

Leap Year….

As I have an ASBO prohibiting me from entering Churches, for religious reasons, and Register Offices (for reasons of sanity) and I do not need to experience again the delights of matrimony - Leap Years hold no terror for me. It is unlikely, in any event, that anyone I know would be [...]

Charon goes to Bollywood…

The stress has finally got to me…. s0… I have made another movie… rather short…. but  imperfectly executed…
Charon goes to Bollywood….
You never know… you may want to make your own Bollywood film?

A year ago today…

I’ve just realised… that a year ago today I did my first ‘interview’ podcast with Justin Patten of Human law.  (My first podcast was a couple of weeks before - a monologue).
I’m coming up to my 50th podcast interview - excluding ‘Weekend Review’ podcasts.  I enjoy doing the podcasts - and I’d just like to [...]

Weekend Review: 23-24 February

Quite a busy week in the news… so, today, I have a mix of text, podcasts and even a bit of film.
First, I talk with Carl Gardner, author of the Head of Legal Blog, about the need for a national DNA database. We then have a look at the political situation in [...]

Podcast 49: Follow up on illegal downloading with Dr Peter Groves

A follow up to the podcast with Ed Vaizey MP, Shadow Minister for Culture on the problem of illegal downloading and the duration of copyright protection with Dr Peter Groves, Solicitor and consultant with Bircham Dyson Bell LLP.
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Listen to Podcast 49: Dr Peter Groves, Solicitor on the control of illegal downloading 

Muttley Dastardly LLP: Curious LPC examination procedures

From the Office of The Training & Recruitment partner
Subject: Curious LPC examination procedures
We at Muttley Dastardly LLP have, as you know, come to a most profitable arrangement with a purveyor of LPC course services to train our future trainees in the values and mores of our firm. This has worked to [...]

Charon goes to jazz at The Bollo…

As I seem to spend a fair bit of my leisure (and thinking) time at The Bollo, I decided to take my television camera along to give you an insight into what The Bollo looks like. It is a Sunday. The doors have just opened and, as usual, I fall through the [...]

Podcast 48: Ed Vaizey MP, Shadow Minister for Culture on illegal downloader proposals

Today I am talking to Ed Vaizey MP, Conservative member of Parliament for Wantage, and Didcot about proposals to regulate the internet to prevent illegal downloading of media, including music, television and published works. Ed Vaizey is currently the Shadow Minister for Culture.
I am also talking to Peter Lewinton, a graduate in law from Oxford [...]

Wildy’s goes RSS to keep you informed about new books…

A pleasure to let you know that Jonathan Sykes of Wildy’s has got RSS for new books from Wildy’s

LawCareers.net reviews Charon and other blawgs…

Adam Smith of LawCareers.net has done a review of several blawgs, including my own.  Good to see a popular website taking the trouble to do a review of blawging.  It may inspire others to blawg?
Read the review here 

Diana Inquest: Al Fayed speaks….

I do not go to Harrods, but I understand there is a memorial to Dodi and Diana at the shop and Al Fayed appears to have a statue of himself as a sphinx. Al Fayed’s website provides all you could wish to know about these matters…. well, apart from the evidence he is now [...]

Podcast 47: Julie Brannan, OXILP on the LPC

Today I am talking to the director of the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice, Julie Brannan. Julie practised law at Herbert Smith, where she was a litigation partner, before going on to OXILP. The Oxford Institute of Legal Practice, a joint venture between Oxford University and Oxford Brookes is one of the leading providers for [...]

Weekend Review: 16/17 February…

Hat Tip to Reactionary Snob, for alerting his readers to the story below:
As Reactionary Snob puts it….
“And people wonder why red-faced buffers like myself don’t trust the government or the mandarins of the Civil Service… This shower couldn’t organise a blowjob in a brothel with a bag of diamonds. I don’t know what is [...]

Bottled water and interfering busybodies…

The absurdity of paying ridiculous prices for bottled water at restaurants and the nonsense of transporting water from all over the world to a Britain awash with rain and a good quality water supply is finally attracting media attention…. I always drink tap water and so far I have not grown breasts nor [...]

News round up… and a thought for Valentine’s day…

Getting up early has many benefits. Putting the script together for the daily news podcast I do each morning at 6.30 also means that I am fairly on top of legal news. Whether this is a good thing or not is an entirely different question.
To borrow from and adapt the famous aphorism of [...]

President of The Law Society writes to Jack Straw…

Andrew Holroyd, President of The Law Society writes to Jack Straw…
Expressing concern about bugging of lawyer / client conversations.
Download the letter (Word document) from Consilio

The Law Society gave permission for the letter to be made more widely available.

On the eve of St Valentine’s day….

On the eve of St Valentine’s Day… the legal profession is able to contribute, albeit in a small way, by advising that caution may be the best way to go.
Robert Verkaik, legal editor of The Independent writes: “Tomorrow is the one day of the year when the head is given over to matters [...]