Quote du Jour
“I’ll deny having said this, but it’s a bribe … the sort of thing I can say to these guys … you put that question down now, I thought you were interested in Fiji, would you like to come down to it, you know, I believe it’s quite nice … I can whisper that.”
Lord Laird as reported in The Telegraph story: Lord suggests best way to ‘bribe’ colleagues
It seems only right to start this review with a visit to thebungblog – A LIGHT HEARTEDLY SERIOUS LOOK AT THE BRIBERY ACT 2010. Here is an enjoyable read: “A QUESTION OF INTERPRETATION”
In the wake of the astonishing ‘Cash for Questions’ saga – more to come on that, inevitably – let me draw your attention to an excellent blog post done last year by A dragon’s best friend: Cash for applications?
For my part – I would be quite happy to see the abolition of the House of Lords, a unicameral system (or at the least an elected second chamber) and the abolition of all honours. It won’t happen of course – but holding these views allows me to keep vaguely sane in the current dystopian landscape.
But there we go… now to the law blogs…
I know nothing about crofting but I know a man who does. Brian Inkster of Inksters is the man to go to for crofting law action. And there is a lot of it about with the recent Crofting Law Bill.
Crofting Law Blog: 6 out of 10 to the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee
Brian Inkster manages to give a Strictly Come Dancing / Eurovision feel to an otherwise serious analysis. That is classy blogging!
For those who are not operating in the Crofting Law field, Brian also blogs at The Time Blawg – the latest post, a very comprehensive review: LawTech Futures 2013 Reviewed: The one with the neocortex
“Now let me point a finger, not at the Lord Chancellor, but at the legal profession. How the hell did we let this happen?”
Legal 2.0 is the man pointing the finger and I agree with him on the premise that the campaign should not be focused on preaching to the converted. I raised this with Michael Turner QC , Chairman of The Criminal Bar Association, when I did my podcast with him. In fact, the CBA and others were successful in raising public interest – in the mainstream media, on twitter and also managed to get Stephen Fry , with his millions of followers, interested – and over 70,000 people signed the petition. The campaign should have been directed more to the general public? Some, rightly, have voiced the opinion that the campaign leaders may have benefited from hiring in experienced PR campaign specialists. John Busby’s addition to a blog post written by Paul Wise of WiseCounsel is well worth a read.
The Magistrates’ Blog considers the speculation about Ministry of Justice plans to ‘privatise the courts’: A Straw In The Wind – “Until last Autumn my court had a nice little snack bar, looked after by a lady who supplied reasonably priced refreshments to court users, staff and magistrates. It was a meeting point for lawyers and others, and was run at no cost to HMCTS. Last Autumn the lady decided to move on, and the bar closed. We were assured that a replacement was being sought, but had to go through the full ponderous civil service procurement process. Then silence……”
While the Government continues to ‘wrestle’ with compliance policy in relation to European Court of Human Rights judgments – the Scots are having issues of their own in relation to prisoner voting rights in the forthcoming independence referendum. Lalland’s Peat Worrier is on the case: Fulsome prison blues…
Ipso Jure by Dr Peter Groves, Solicitor, continues to provide analysis and commentary on intellectual property law and has a free textbook for law students.
I found this blog post by Paul Bernal most interesting: Google Glass: just because you can…
Paul writes…”As a bit of a geek, and a some-time game player, it’s hard not to like the look of Google Glass. Sure, it makes you look a little dorky in its current incarnation (even if you’re Sergey Brin, as in the picture below) but people like me are used to looking dorky, and don’t really care that much about it. What it does, however, is cool, and cool in a big way. We get heads-up displays that would have been unimaginable even a few years ago, a chance to feel like Arnie in the Terminator, with the information about everything we can see immediately available. It’s cool – in a dorky, sci-fi kind of way, and for those of us brought up on a diet of SF it’s close to irresistible.”
Read more…
***
Time to go for a long walk while the late afternoon Sunday sun continues to shine. I am sorry if I have not managed to cover all the familiar blogs in this series of four reviews of and from the law blogs. I plan to look at some more, including US, Canadian and Australian blogs, soon and will, of course, cover interesting blog posts in my normal review of the ‘wonders of law’ in my regular postings.
I leave you with an old letter from Lord Shagger – who sends his best wishes from Monaco. He is much amused by the greed and stupidity of parliamentarians caught up in the recent ‘lobby’ scandal.
[…] Recent law blog round ups by Charon QC: 1,2,3,4 […]
The barrister in your cartoon appears to have (I say hastily I have led a sheltered life) a ‘Camberwell carrot’ in his hand.
😉
White Rabbit – He DOES appear to have such an item… ! You good? we shall speak soon of many things….