Sometime tutor in Law.
London
Joined May 2010
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Basing planning decisions on the effects on other shops (particularly other supermarkets) should be unlawful. The only context in which we allow supermarkets to block their competition is the planning regime. It’s unfair competition.
Supermarket blocked from building on city's edge bbc.in/3W0zs7B
I would like to see median earners paying their fair share, as they did under Attlee, or in France or Belgium.
Exclusive
Leader of Britain's biggest union warns failure to include hike in capital gains or wealth tax at Budget would be a "big mistake".
Unison general secretary Andrea Egan says in Mirror interview: "The polls are out there and the results are people want to see the wealthy paying their fair share."
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/b…
Well its a good thing that her books haven't been censored then. If anyone would like to buy my copy of Intermezzo, they are free to make me an offer.
OPEN LETTER: Sally Rooney is a writer, not a terrorist. Her books must be available to the public. Their withdrawal from sale, on the basis of ill-conceived and draconian anti terror legislation, is an affront to basic principles of free speech and expression so long taken for granted in this country. We categorically reject censorship - whether direct or indirect - and urge the government to change course, amending the legislation which has led us to this point of repressive absurdity.
Maybe setting up decade long enquiries which report after the relevant actors have left the stage, at the cost of tens or hundreds of millions, isn’t a good way to run a state.
The latest Covid inquiry report barely caused a ripple in Westminster yesterday. It's not just that this is the sixth module of the inquiry, which has been running since 2022, but also that the report itself has offered little in the way of revelations.
The care sector suffered particularly as a result of poor pre-pandemic planning. Ministers' claim to have thrown a 'protective ring' around care homes was manifestly untrue.
✍️ Isabel Hardman
Article | spectator.com/article/why-ar… | @IsabelHardman
These numbers would not survive the actual reality of rejoining the EU. There might still be a majority for rejoin, but I doubt it would be anywhere near as overwhelming.
📊 The 2016 Brexit electorate no longer exists.
Peter Kellner has updated the sums using YouGov and ONS data.
Since 2016:
🔹 Around 3.8m Leave voters have died, against 2.1m Remain voters.
🔹 Around 7m new voters have reached voting age, overwhelmingly pro-European.
🔹 Around 5m voters have changed their minds 👉roughly three-quarters of them moving from Leave to Rejoin.
His estimate of how Britain would vote now:
🇪🇺 REJOIN: 20.0m 👉 63%
🇬🇧 STAY OUT: 11.8m 👉 37%
A majority of almost 9 million.
Brexit happened. Britain has lived with it for a decade.
But democracy does not freeze the electorate in 2016 forever.
The question is what Britain wants now not what it indicated in 2016.
You mean that time when hotels were largely empty because we had banned travel into the UK and around the UK?
Matthew retweeted
Building anything in our country is way too expensive and it takes too long.
To open a 3.3 mile railway line to Bristol, it took 79,187 pages of planning documents. That's 14.6 miles of paperwork, stacked end to end.
Kemi is spot on. We have to get Britain building again.
Example 5020292762 of people not understanding what the Sovereign Grant is. It isn’t personal income, which the King voluntarily pays tax on!
The Sovereign Grant to the King doesn’t count as taxable income.
Payments by the state to Britons, such as the state pension, carer’s allowance, contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance, and contribution-based employment and support allowance are taxable.
leftfootforward.org/2026/10/…
Hard to argue with the Economist here, particularly with the point that suicide as political rhetoric may be putting distressed people in more danger.
economist.com/britain/2026/1…
Sally Rooney’s books remain free for anyone who already owns a copy to sell. What is a legal risk is paying her, because she has made clear her intention to use her money to fund ram raiding with vans, intimidating businesses with violence and hitting police officers.
EXCLUSIVE. Celebrated Irish writer Colm Tóibín tells me about the Sally Rooney case in the UK and the withdrawal of her works after supporting Palestine Action. 🇮🇪🇬🇧
“It seems that Sally Rooney's books won't be published in the UK.
People will have to come to Ireland to buy them where they will be freely on sale.
In the 1970's, since you couldn't buy condoms in Ireland, you had to go to England to get them
Now, it is reversed, except it is Sally Rooney books, not condoms.
In Northern Ireland, since it is - from the point of view of customs and tariffs - half in the UK and half in Ireland, the books by Sally Rooney will be available and not available.
In other words, this is absurd. And at its heart is an absurd piece of legislation.
Who believes that Palestine Action is a terrorist organisation? No one does.
If you carry a tiny bit of paper saying 'Palestine Action', you can be arrested.
If you have it in your pocket, you can't be arrested.
How mad is this?
Sally Rooney is a serious and committed person. The idea that she is a suspect under this mad piece of legislation is absurd.
British governments of recent years are not known for their sanity or their wisdom.
If Andy Burnham doesn't repeal this insane piece of legislation, then he will be despised as much as his last five predecessors were.”
irishtimes.com/culture/books…
I continue to have serious doubts that paying someone abroad believing they will consequently fund a proscribed organisation is in itself unlawful. It’s not the same as agreeing with them that they will do it. It’s a publicity stunt.
I’m not sure this is an entirely accurate description of the CA ruling, which then leaves me wondering whether it is the BBC, or those pushing reform, who don’t understand.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6y4…
The police absolutely can be sued for malicious prosecution for eg fabricating evidence, *once an accused has been acquitted*.