A visit to the Police Station….

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Police, Camera, Action….

Today I read three different stories about the Police.  The first is serious – the other two mildly absurd. I read on SimonCollister.com a post about the Metropolitan Police and  the Evening Standard “The Met has now requested that all imagery of its officers hiding or obscuring their badges be removed from photo libraries and [...]

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The law of unintended consequences….lizard gods and control orders.

It is, I suppose,  quite possible that somewhere out there, in The City or the regions, there is a lawyer who believes that god is a lizard and  who also happens to be a psychic. Last week environmental campaigner Tim Nicholson successfully argued that green beliefs were the same as religious beliefs  for the purpose [...]

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Libel reform: Free speech is not for sale…

Jack of Kent – a skeptical and liberal look at law by writer and lawyer Allen Green – considers reform of libel… A very interesting read.

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Bar Council: An excellent speech by Desmond Browne QC

Access to Justice – Justice for All? Around 500 people were present at the Bar Council Conference on Saturday which has been judged a great success. The keynote speech was delivered by Sir Nicolas Bratza, following the opening address by Chairman of the Bar, Desmond Browne QC. Desmond Browne’s speech, if you haven’t heard it [...]

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Privacy, secrecy and putting the clock back twenty years

The Independent reports: Ministry of Justice figures indicate there are 3,808 judges in England and Wales and 205 or 5.4 per cent are Freemasons. There are also 29,702 magistrates, of whom 1,900 or 6.4 per cent are Freemasons. While I am more than happy to go along with Jack Straw’s statement …“no evidence” of any [...]

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They put a man to death… he died at 9.11 last night

Why, when we have bravely and nobly progressed so far in the recent past to create a decent, humane society, must we perpetuate the senseless barbarism of official murder? – Abe Fortas (1910-1982), former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, New York Times. The DC sniper was executed at 9.00 pm last night. Reports on Twitter reveal [...]

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Our sceptred isle: another great day for British law and justice…

As the prime minister and Alistair Darling continue to empty the coffers at the Treasury and the Bank of England quantitatively eases yet more money into the banking system, it would appear that ‘Question Time Jack”, our Lord Chancellor and Minister of Justice, not to be left out in providing absolute powers for a future [...]

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No sex please… and a fine end to a pet chicken.

One of the benefits of starting my work at around 4.30 am each day is that by late afternoon I can faff about.  Today,  Chef Charon decided that it was time to cook a chicken. It was, I suppose, the natural ending to the pet chicken but I did, at least, offer it a last [...]

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Blawg Review #237 – Christian Metcalfe of Property Law blog

Blawg Review #237 – Christian Metcalfe of Property Law blog “Today’s single most important political principle, the right to live in a participatory democracy, comes down to us not from the slave-owning societies of Athens and Rome, or from the pleasant estates in France where Rousseau and Montaigne envisioned the ‘general will’, but from buff-coated [...]

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Westminster Bridge: A hidden Da Vinci code metaphor for MPs…Parliament?

I do not know who took this photograph – but props to whoever did…. I found this on Twitter this morning. colmmu http://twitpic.com/ov76e – RT @spacemonki a photo of Westminster Bridge … one ponders the intention to represent the neighbouring inhabitants…

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Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, sed dulcius pro patria vivere, et dulcissimum pro patria bibere. Ergo, bibamus pro salute patriae” Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is a line from the Roman lyrical poet Horace’s Odes (III.2.13). The line has been used frequently in war poetry – most notably by WWI poet [...]

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Postcard from The Staterooms-on-Sea: Ghosts, Lemon cake and wine edition

Dear Reader, You may well find that drinking a glass of Argentine Malbec on a Saturday afternoon at 4.00 pm with a slice of lemon cake a strange thing to do and, more often than not, I would agree with you. But today, I made a bacon, egg, mushroom and onion pie (some people prefer [...]

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The Law business and the business of law…

Will law firms be able to attract third party investors in the brave new world or will existing financial services business develop their own businesses by providing legal services or provide law services from scratch under their brands? Well… to be perfectly honest, if I knew the full answer to that now,  I would probably [...]

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Rive Gauche: Cock ups, being a cock and on ‘The Square’.

It is Friday, so there isn’t much legal news – journos having hyperventilated themselves into a state of collapse earlier in the week are, possibly, recovering from Thursday night – the new Friday. So, in keeping with this spirit, I thought I would start a weekly section and being a ‘european’ with a small ‘e’, [...]

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Tonight may be bonfire tonight… but tonight… I’m all about Europe!

Bonjour Willkommen bienvenue… as we say down on the River Medway….. but in fact… we say Hiya!  You alright?… which I quite like… and have found myself saying as I greet the taxi driver who whisks me from the Staterooms-on-Sea to Chatham Railway station. It is wonderfully ironic that the Tories, who have some very [...]

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Blawg Review #236 – Halloween Edition by Eric Turkewitz

Eric Turkewitz writes a ‘mean’ Blawg Review… and I mean that in the Cowboy Western ‘mean an ornery’ sense…of the word I heard as a child when I was transfixed by Rawhide, Gunsmoke et al.  From a Marathon themed Blawg Review, written by him some time back and which was superb, to the dark depths [...]

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ARRIVEDERCI LONDRA!

ARRIVEDERCI LONDRA! by Tonto Papadopoulos A grave and present threat looms on the horizon: one that could wilt the economic life of The City, London, the entire UK – maybe the World. You’ve heard it again and again, and you’ve been warned, “If banks don’t hand out billions in bonuses, talent will migrate!”… leaving tumbleweeds [...]

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Cameron sets out policy for Europe

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Bar Council Launches It’s Your Call – A Career at the Bar

Bar Council Launches It’s Your Call – A Career at the Bar (3 November 2009) The Bar Council has published the fourth annual edition of It’s Your Call, a guide for those interested in joining the Bar.  The guide, published in collaboration with the Inns of Court, is the latest in a series of publications [...]

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