11th June 2024 From time to time the party now known as the Conservative and Unionist party has done badly – very badly. * In 1828-32, the old Tory collapsed …

Donald Trump is convicted – but it is now the judicial system that may need a good defence strategy

Individual Contributors to Policy Commons · 1 June 2024 English

1st June 2024 On balance, the prosecution of Donald Trump in New York did not look likely to succeed. The prosecution had to show that certain business records were falsified …

The unwelcome weaponisation of police complaints as part of ordinary politics

Individual Contributors to Policy Commons · 31 May 2024 English

31st May 2024 Here is a news snippet that showed the sheer dislocation in our politics. It is from 2022. You may remember the context. There was always something that …

Thoughts on the calling of a general election – and on whether our constitutional excitements are coming to an end

Individual Contributors to Policy Commons · 29 May 2024 English

29 May 2024 When the general election was suddenly called I was in the middle of writing about another legal topic for Prospect. And then when the current Prime Minister …

Another inquiry report, another massive public policy failure revealed

Individual Contributors to Policy Commons · 21 May 2024 English

21st May 2024 There are so many governmental scandals that it is difficult to keep up with them all, and one horrific scandal this blog has not before covered is …

On how regulating the media is hard – if not impossible – and on why reviving the Leveson Inquiry may …

Individual Contributors to Policy Commons · 4 May 2024 English

Star Wars Day, 2024 I once came across a quote in a history book which I have never been able to re-find. It was from an acquaintance of I think …

Trump’s case – a view from an English legal perspective

Individual Contributors to Policy Commons · 24 April 2024 English

24th April 2024 I am not an American lawyer, but here are some thoughts from an English litigation perspective. Trump is adept at what he calls (or his ghost writer …

Law and lore, and state failure – the quiet collapse of the county court system in England and Wales

Individual Contributors to Policy Commons · 22 April 2024 English

22nd April 2024 One theme of my blogging is the relationship between law and lore. By ‘law and lore’ I mean what people believe to be the law to be, …

How the civil justice system forced Hugh Grant to settle – and why an alternative to that system is difficult …

Individual Contributors to Policy Commons · 17 April 2024 English

17th April 2024 Hugh Grant has acted in many counter-intuitive scenarios. But the situation he described today on Twitter is perhaps the most counter-intuitive predicament of them all: * Grant …

Unpacking the remarkable witness statement of Johnny Mercer – a closer look at the extraordinary evidence put before the Afghan …

Individual Contributors to Policy Commons · 25 March 2024 English

25 March 2024 Over at Prospect I have written a piece on the remarkable witness statement of Johnny Mercer MP given to the current Afghan war crimes inquiry. (On that …