@stephenswan.bsky.social
Lawyer (non practising). Constitutional law, criminal law, EU & international law. Legal history, Astronomy & astrophysics, planetary geology, climate science & biodiversity, classics & ancient history, the supernatural & folklore.
For what it is worth I 💯 agree with this.
✋ Former USG war crimes lawyer here.
Apropos of SecDef's remarks this morning:
Denial of quarter—even the declaration of no quarter—is a war crime.
And recognized as such by the US Government.
From DoD's Manual for Military Commissions.
I am hoping that without the influence of McSwinney Starmer remembers the Starmer who delivered the speech in the HoC on 19/10/2019.
Completely. It was because of the feeling of exceptionalism that voters thought they could escape the need for normal diplomacy, politics and institutions.
It's been a learning experience
“To the "I didn't vote for this" folks. You voted for a convicted felon. A twice-impeached president. A man found liable for sexual abuse. A man who tried to overthrow an election.
And now gas prices are surging, we're at war, and soldiers are coming home in coffins. This is what you voted for…” 🖕
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticized the Trump administration's decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian oil in an effort to bring down energy prices.
The unilateral decision by the US to lift sanctions on Russian oil exports is very concerning, as it impacts European security.
Increasing economic pressure on Russia is decisive for it to accept a serious negotiation for a just and lasting peace.
🚨In 2020 Nigel Farage said of MPs who defect & refuse a by-election “it’s not right, it’s dishonorable”
ON 16 MARCH PARLIAMENT WILL DEBATE A PETITION FOR BY-ELECTIONS TO BE TRIGGERED AUTOMATICALLY WHEN MP’S DEFECT
I’m sure Mr Farage can’t wait to attend and repeat this comment.
Perhaps you should donate to the Green Party (which what the Labour Party used to be)…
NEW
How the Palestine Action proscription case...
...and the botched prosecution of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh...
...show how the Home Office, the police, and the prosecutors, are not taking terrorism law seriously.
By me at The Empty City blog
Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/how-the-pa...
It was some bloke on the back of a British £5 banknote that said that “jaw jaw” is better than “war war”.
That is why institutions such as the Council of Europe, ECtHR, the EEC now EU, the Permanent International Court of Justice & UN are so very important. The UK lost sight of that since 2016.
This kind of thing does help. This is the sort of diplomacy the UK needs right now
(doesn't obviate the need to obliterate the May-Johnson-Starmer redlines.
💯 agree (although personally speaking I’d prefer the Otter!). The Lib Dems leader is no better on this (and I’m a Lib Dems supporter!).
Sadly, there’s no Attlee, MacMillan, Churchill, Eden, Slim, Portal and Menzies who can really speak to the horrors of war and the importance of human rights.
This made me cry with despairing laughter. We’re on the brink of worldwide recession and devastating conflict and this is the priority? It’s as if an entire political class has just given up. The government barely any better.
Or even Lady Grey .
If only the public had voted for cups of tea 🍵 on banknotes, we could have had Earl Grey
AFP: UN special rapporteur says the world has entered a "new dark age of abuses in the name of countering terrorism", with the United States "raining death" on Iran and Venezuela.
It's sad that Trump & Hegseth have yet to show an ounce of remorse or empathy for the deadly mistake of killing over 150 little Iranian girls.
Instead, they lie and say it was Iran's Tomahawk that killed them, or they pivot & say America never targets civilians, when nobody is saying they did.
I’m sure this be very useful for Scotland at the UN when the English Gvt tells them Scotland isn’t a colony because it has self governance.
Ukraine and Romania have signed documents on strategic partnership.
One of the documents concerns, in particular, the joint production of drones in Ukraine and diplomatic support in all formats, said Romanian President Nicușor Dan.
No doubt the Free Speech loving Isabel Oakeshott will be all over this and down the nick in Dubai protesting against it...
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
“We had not realized our government was capable of such folly and such crookedness”
David Astor’s leader in the Observer 1956, on the Suez crisis. Another narrow stretch of water critical to global trade, another empire in its ugly death throes … www.theguardian.com/politics/200...
They really treat war as a game. With score cards. If we kill more than you, or sink more ships than you do, that means we’ve won.
That’s not how it works. It just isn’t.
What was the role of international human rights law and standards in the development of the updated ICRC Commentary? How can the ICRC Commentary contribute to the work of the OHCHR, Human Rights Council, and other UN human rights mechanisms?
Side event to 61st session of UN Human Rights Council - International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) & Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) discuss updated ICRC Commentary on the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention on protection of civilians (ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treat...).
Moderator:
Professor Cécile Aptel, Executive Director, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law & Human Rights
Speakers:
Dr Jean-Marie Henckaerts, ICRC.
Ms Sun Kim, OHCHR.
Opening remarks by the Permanent Mission of Switzerland.
Protecting civilians in armed conflict: human rights and the updated ICRC Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention
16 March 2026, 12.00-13.00 Geneva, Palais de Nations, Building A, Room IX (accessible only to those already with UN access)
I hope someone judicially reviews the Ofgem decision !
On Ofgem’s decision to grant Elon Musk’s Tesla Energy company a licence to supply electricity in Britain, Naomi Smith of Best for Britain: “We all know the British public rightly view Elon Musk as a profoundly dangerous and malign influence, who belongs nowhere near our critical infrastructure."