My friend James Higham – learned counsel for the other side – has replied at length to the video I posted of Philip Spooner saying, in answer to whether he was supportive of gay rights, ‘what do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?‘, saying “Marriage is the union of two people for the [...]

xD.

While Jan Moir has been issuing her homophobic drivel and being roundly castigated by the internet, another story in the news of quite astounding bigotry caught my eye. In Tangipahoa Country, Louisiana, a justice of the peace, Keith Bardwell, refuses to give marriage licenses for mixed-race couples. Yes, you read that correctly. The story first [...]

Carter-Ruck, acting on behalf of Trafigura, sought to restrict a liberty hard-won by John Wilkes – reporting what happens in Parliament. The details are here, but revolve around an injunction stopping publication of a written question in parliament in the Guardian. From the Order Book, q 61. “To ask the Secretary of State for Justice [...]

Alan Turing, OBE, did a great deal to hasten the end of World War Two through his work at Bletchley Park and the design of the bombe – the machine used to break three- and four- rotor Enigma cyphers. He’s also known for the Turing Test of artificial intelligence – can a machine convince a [...]

Yes, I’m biased towards Labour, but the boy done good. H/T The Wardman Wire. xD.

In a post on her website1, Nadine Dorries MP makes a series of contentions concerning the law on assisting suicide that I believe to be mistaken. The first contention is that the 1961 Suicide Act clearly and unambiguously “states that those who aid, abet, counsel or procure someone else’s suicide, can be prosecuted and punished [...]

Over at the OpenLeft website, various worthies are asked the question “What is it about your political beliefs that put you on the Left rather than the Right?”. Various others have weighed in; I’d like to go through some of the comments people made and then have a go myself. Polly Toynbee Sunder Katwala Jon [...]

Jack of Kent has rapidly become one of my favourite blogs; it is in the ‘must read’ section of my RSS. Firstly, he has a rare ability amongst lawyers: that of making complex legal principles and processes understandable to the layperson. Secondly, he campaigns tirelessly for one of the great rights: freedom of speech. Thirdly, [...]

“The Iraq war was a disaster” is a familiar refrain. Unfortunately, that doesn’t tell us very much. Do we mean the concept, the planning, the implementation, the strategy, the tactics, what? Or do we want an official stick with which to beat the government? Were the problems with the Iraq war just the basis on [...]