Dear Reader
A bit late with my ‘Postcard’ this week. I decided to take a few days away from blogging et al. Punctuation is elusive to some, challenges many, and is an obsession for a few. This ‘Oxford Comma’ graphic is amusing.
Legal Bizzle turns his mind to the issue of the role of GCs (General Counsel) and the topic of a talk at a recent conference delivered by Tom Kilroy: “Operating as your company’s ‘moral’ compass”.
Lawyers are called on these days to develop a number of skills. I suspect, however, even in a country famous for ‘Le Vice Anglais’, that there will not be any continuing professional development points available for this extra-curricular work…
Prosecution lawyer moonlighting as ‘dominatrix at S&M events in skin-tight latex’ is suspended
It is rare for law students these days to study Roman law, Jurisprudence or The History of English Law. It is good to see a fellow law blogger turning her expertise to this fascinating subject with a new History of English Law blog – well worth dipping into.
Hopefully, the right to professional legal representation before the courts, particularly the criminal courts, will not be consigned to history. Lawyers, rightly, are warning of the dangers of the current government policy of cutting back dramatically on legal aid. This letter from Jonathan Djanogly MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, reveals a degree of smugness. Is he really saying that the government is satisfied that there is a sufficient supply of desperate barristers and solicitor advocates to provide the necessary levels of ‘manning’ to run our creaking criminal justice system? Have a look at the letter and judge for yourself. It has a hint of ‘smuggery’ about it to my eye — but, I accept, that my eye is becoming increasingly jaundiced when it comes to announcements from this government. I am, of course, assuming that the letter is genuine. I have to admit, I had my doubts when I first saw it on twitter. [But… the title of my post is ‘Sardonic Tuesday’ – I did believe that it was genuine.]
The Metropolitan Police has taken up the sport of using the law imaginatively to suit their own ends – resulting in a flurry of outrage from lawyers and bloggers. David Allen Green has considered the use of the Official Secrets Act by the Metropolitan Police to put pressure on The Guardian to reveal sources here – dismissing their tactic as ‘the stuff of parody’. Adam Wagner asks if the seminal Shayler case would be useful to The Guardian. The Guardian reports that the attorney-general will have to decide the matter.
It was National Talk Like A Pirate Day on twitter yesterday – providing opportunity on an otherwise dull Monday morning for some light relief. Unfortunately, as is often the case with twitter, it brought out the tedious pedants and killjoys to remind us that pirates didn’t, in fact, talk like pirates. The trouble with pedants is that they have little sense of joy and are obviously far too mature to be on twitter.
Fifteen briefs on a City arrest.
Yo ho ho and a bottle of Krug.
Coke and the Euro Crisis have done the rest.
Yo ho ho and a bottle of Krug.
AND FINALLY… just in case we are left in any doubt about the ethics of the present government… this astonishing story – assuming it is true – really is worrying…
Michael Gove faces questions over department’s use of private email
The Guardian: Education secretary facing claims that he and his advisers used private emails to conduct government business.
Quite apart from issues of compliance with law – is this the conduct we expect or deserve from a senior government minister?
A short one this week. I shall return soon.
Best, as always
Charon
As smuggery abounds on the mainland, I am disappointed that our members of piracy bear more resemblance to Captain Pugwash than Johnny Depp. Hearty thanks for this postcard.
Interesting debate at Chancery Lane last night
Perhaps the MET was hoping to ‘calibrate’ the extent of its corruption enquiries. Now the MET is not sure just how much the Grauniad knows – delicious.
Djanogly’s letter: Haven’t we seen this level of arrogance before? E.g. the last government’s ignorance of the advice of employment lawyers and judges not to introduce obligatory grievance and disciplinary procedures which were meant to reduce litigation in the Employment Tribunals. The government went ahead and introduced the legislation under an SI against advice in 2004. It was so poorly drafted that it fostered litigation and clogged up the ETs even more. The government had to repeal the SI in 2009 for this reason. Hopefully we’ll see the government smugness turn to defensive apologia within the life of this parliament when the negative effects of the legal aid cuts comes to the attention of the right-wing tabloids. Dajonogly will probably have been farmed out to graze in another department by then, though.
Thanks for the mention, much appreciated. I notice that the bondage lawyer is described as wearing skin-tight latex “for her performances outside the office”. Any word on what she wears for her performances inside the office?