A fit of the giggles while reading an obituary….

Charlotte Green gets the giggles on BBC Radio 4 BBC newsreader Charlotte Green dissolved in a fit of giggles while reading an obituary You may have seen this… but I just cannot resist giving you the link from The Guardian.  A good friend of mine emailed me the link but a moment ago.

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Muttley Dastardly LLP: You’re hired!….

Transcript of telephone conversation between Eva Braun, PA to Matt Muttley, and Matt Muttley. Friday 28th March 0630 hours. Braun: Hi Matt… how ya hanging? Muttley: Good, Eva… in fact… very good. Excuse me darling, I have to take this call from my PA, Eva…….. Eva… sorry… my Mother decided to come over for breakfast [...]

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The State Visit of the French President

” … Bruni’s pert pillbox hat was perfect. Poor Camilla looked like a pheasant crash-landed on her head
. Demure as a virgin bride, Mrs Sarkozy arrived in Britain with an oh-so-chic hat perched on her gently curling hair. And then there was Camilla, wearing what can only be called roadkill, says AMANDA PLATELL of the [...]

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Back to normal?…

Easter has come and gone…. back to normal…

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Weekend Review Sunday 23 March: Urbi et Orbi…

Implausibly, but entirely in character for this time of year, I found myself at 6.30 am this morning standing in the back of a truck reviewing Russian troops – a curious thing, it has to be said, to be doing on Easter Sunday. But there you are. What the troops were doing in Chiswick, West [...]

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This Easter Bunny needs an ASBO…

This Easter Bunny needs an ASBO The video, linked below, demonstrates criminality in practice. Instead of wasting time trying to hunt for all those Easter eggs you hid last night, save calories by counting all the acts of assault and violence committed by this Easter Bunny in the course of a short video. Some of [...]

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Easter… doom, gloom, pestilence, global warming and frogs…

I have not had any time to blog this week. But… on the night of Good Friday… a glass of Rioja to my right and a Rizla cigarette rolling machine, Drum tobacco, green Rizla papers to my left, I can return, at last, to the wonderfully unimportant and religion free matter of blogging. The picture [...]

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The Lords are speaking to the people of Britain

Thanks to Geeklawyer – I am now aware that the House of Lords has a blog. I commend this blog to you – it is here and is on my blogroll. My first post, not of great literary merit, awaits moderation. I doubt whether my ‘comment… awaiting moderation’… will be approved. Geeklawyer has managed to [...]

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Weekend Review 15-16 March

In my other guise – I am covering the ALT Conference at Oxford University – so, I have been unable to blog this weekend. I am doing this remotely – in the form of podcasts with speakers and we are providing a television crew to film a couple of key note speeches on the morrow. [...]

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Balls up?….

Guido Fawkes has a most amusing post on David Cameron’s put down of Ed Ball’s heckling at the Budget Day session in the Commons… the film is worth a look if you have not seen it…. Cameron made the point that we have the highest tax burden in our history – at which point Ed [...]

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Citizenship Review…. a new order for order?….

Apropos of absolutely nothing… save to introduce my latest post… I had the pleasure a few years ago (in another guise) of meeting Lord Goldsmith at The House of Lords when he was Attorney-General and being shown around a fantastically over decorated series of rooms with thrones and bizarre Victorian wallpaper. I think it may [...]

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O what black hours…we have spent this night…

I fell asleep shortly after 9.00 last night only to wake four hours later. After summoning every ounce of courage I possessed at 1.26 am (taking a break from reading Lord Goldsmith’s Citizenship report (above) … I visited the BBC Sport Cricket section to find doom and gloom. I just could not resist this…. on [...]

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Britain… a land of hope and glory?

Robert Verkaik, Legal Editor of The Independent, reported yesterday that “A gay teenager who claims he faces the death penalty in Iran after his boyfriend was executed there two years ago has spoken of his anger and disappointment at losing his legal battle against deportation.” Today, Verkaik reports that “More than 60 peers have signed [...]

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Yet another law free post… smoking…redux

Mea culpa… but yet another law free post, I’m afraid. I have finally decided that I am not particularly good at rolling my own cigarettes. After days of faffing about with roll ups… some that seem to be on fire as I smoke them, others pathetically thin and crumpled with the filter falling out… a [...]

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Weekend Review 8 – 9 March

Henry Porter on the erosion of civil liberties in Britain. A well constructed and impassioned piece… My thanks to Geeklawyer for reminding me of an excellent piece by Henry Porter in the Observer today – a thought provoking article: “Why I told Parliament: you’ve failed us on liberty.” A Tale of Tourettes RollonFriday can usually [...]

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Charon After Dark: A new idea…. not, perhaps, a good one….

I have now decided to interview myself each weekend. Whether I will be able to sustain this (or need to) will depend on global warming. Here is my first Charon After Dark : We don’t need no educashun – London Underground – A Visit to the Geeklawyer temporary blog “The Squat” Listen to Charon After [...]

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Podcast 52: Mark Rawlinson, partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Today I am talking to Mark Rawlinson, a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London. Mark Rawlinson has been a partner for 17 years and specialises in mergers and acquisitions, particularly competitive or contested situations. Recently, Mark wrote an article in Legal Week’s Legal Village blog section under the heading “Putting the ‘Angel stamp’ back [...]

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The biggest smash and grab since The Great Train Robbery?…

Podcast 51: Nigel Savage, CEO, The College of Law on the cost of legal education. Today I am talking to Nigel Savage, Chief Executive of The College of Law about the rising costs of legal education on the LPC and BVC. In Legal Week this week there is a story about BPP Law School hiking [...]

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Giving up smoking?….

One way of giving up smoking is to sit outside The Bollo trying to hand roll a cigarette when it is windy. I had a hand rolled cigarette the other night – it was most enjoyable. I am thinking of rolling my own now. I may have to get one of those Rizla hand rolling [...]

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Podcast 50: Timothy Dutton QC, Chairman of The Bar

Today I am talking to Timothy Dutton QC, Chairman of The Bar. Timothy Dutton QC was born in 1957 and was called to the Bar in 1979. He took silk in 1998. He practices in General Commercial, Public, Regulatory and Administrative Law, Professional Negligence and Disciplinary including sports. In his inaugural speech, Timothy Dutton said: [...]

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