Colin Murray

Woman 'did not know' full details of Hamas attacks, court hears Jurors hear Hanin Barghouthi was concerned about human rights in her speech on 8 October, 2023.

Just days after the BDN/ABJ judgment in the UK Supreme Court and the jury trial of Hanin Barghouthi for supporting Hamas - BDN in the Supreme Court decision on whether human rights protections constrain the prosecution (which the UKSC rejected) - is underway:

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One of the things that really gets me about this policy is that it doesn’t have the impact its supporters seem to think. It don’t affect numbers arriving but it does actively harm integration of those who come. It’s just a really, really bad policy. There’s no case for it being “necessary” at all.

A bit of pure ghoulishness that should really give pause to anyone in Fianna Fail who thinks this is their next leader...

The U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran are illegal.

Iran's attacks in Gulf States are illegal.

The U.K. defending Gulf States is legal, but allowing the U.S. to use its bases is illegal.

In short, everyone is violating international law and should stop.

My latest @justsecurity.org

An important article - in an era of asymmetric warfare and dramatic power imbalances on the world stage, Western democratic leaders, so often in public, will likely come to regret the degradation of the norm against Head of State/Govt assassination by other states much more than autocrats will...

I dunno. Supposedly stupid rules of engagement might well minimise the risks of allies bombing schools or shooting down the US' own jets. Might be something to look into...

Chambers suggested restrictions on ‘no foal, no fee’ environmental cases Minister for Public Expenditure sought ‘radical options’ to deal with judicial reviews of planning and infrastructure issues

Potentially fatal blow to the Govt's plan to cap fees in environmental Judicial Reviews.

Proof that it's motivated by desire to reduce JRs, rather than the lie that it's just to make fees "predictable." Wait until the Aarhus Committee & CJEU get a hold of this.

www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

Everything about Badenoch can be understood through the fact she sees the world through the lens of her “ethnic enemies”: a totalising worldview that will always, always, make the people who hold it say and do stupid things.

Feminist Approaches to Constituent Power AbstractDiscussions on constituent power are often concerned with who has authority to bring about constitutional change, and liberal constitutionalist res

Myself & @ruthhoughton.bsky.social have a chapter out in Oxford Handbook of Constituent Power that focuses on #feminist approaches

thnx Peter NiesenMarkusPatberg & Lucia Rubinelli for the invite

academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

The state of the Irish Govt as it gets itself ready to fix a smile and hand over a bunch of Shamrock in the White House. Subsequently, for ministers, means on any date from 18 March onwards - that's when international law on aggressive war will matter again:

www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

Really important intervention from @daniellalock.bsky.social into why both grounds for the High Court finding the Palestine Action ban unlawful matter, and that notwithstanding some of the criticism of the Court, why it matters that the court is asserting a high bar for such a ban to be justified:

If a reform can be carried out by a ministerial adjustment to the immigration rules, with no vote in Parliament, either the change really isn't an "existential" issue for the UK, or it absolutely shouldn't be.

Cruel, when a new refugee crisis looms if Iran collapses.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Well now that the UK is party to an illegal war, it is much more likely that its bases will be attacked...

Asserting international law only when it is in your own/allies interest means not being committed to international law at all. Being dragged into a war by more powerful allies against direct interest and better judgement means having no strategic autonomy. The UK Govt is in a mess.

“We cannot say that the United States’ actions are against international law, but we condemn Iran’s retaliatory actions as against international law,” is neither a coherent nor a compelling position.

The American-Israeli Strikes on Iran are (Again) Manifestly Illegal After weeks of threats, the United States, joined by Israel, has launched military strikes against Iran. It remains to be seen whether these strikes will be fairly limited, or are the opening of an ex...

The American-Israeli Strikes on Iran are (Again) Manifestly Illegal | by Marko Milanovic

Opinion | Trump’s Strikes on Iran Were Unlawful. Here’s Why That Matters.

The strikes on Iran are blatantly illegal. I explained in June why the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities were unlawful under US and international law. Everything I wrote then is true today, but this is a far larger assault with far graver consequences.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/o...

A spiral without any conceivable plan beyond phase 1 that ends up with Iran as a huge failed state...

Reform and Tories report ‘family voting’ allegations to watchdog Nigel Farage says his party was victim of ‘cheating’ in Gorton and Denton byelection, although Manchester council says no issues reported

The right now routinely claim fraud when they lose - even in countries with very straight electoral systems. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

There seems to be a view in Labour that it's cany to ramp up a Draconian policy against those with leave to remain on the basis that it's not a group who can vote, so what is there to lose. This neglects that their friends, family and anyone with a shred of decency is horrified, and will vote...

Emma Reynolds on BBCR4 just now going on and on about Muslim voters and Labour's position on Gaza, as if no one else cares about this issue. After Labour has spent the day not pushing back against Reform claims about sectarian politics, it starts leaning into them. No conception of what's going on.

tweet by the late Dawn Foster from Sep 4th 2020 "Matt Goodwin once emailed me to accuse him of being racist when I called him a “racist whisperer” and I had to explain to him that horse whisperers aren’t horses."

RIP to a real one

Legal action launched over NI students who missed in-person uni teaching because of Covid Group action launched for Northern Ireland students seeking compensation over disrupted university experiences during Covid. Learn more about the claims and how to join.

Before former NI students think this will yield huge payouts, the average damages award (less legal costs) for UCL students is unlikely to be over £2k for multiple years of disruption (with £9k+ fees). A comparable payment in NI (£4k fees) would be £750:

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/educati...

you know I would say her matching pink phone case really makes this, gives Goodwin a huge "sad loser man at the end of Legally Blonde" vibe

a cartoon character from the simpsons says " we 're through the looking glass here people " ALT: a cartoon character from the simpsons says " we 're through the looking glass here people "

We go live to Matt Goodwin for comment: The woke progressives and the radical Islamists have banded together to become the new elite.

In fairness to Allister, the latest episode does hit this hard. Great show.

My Trade Secrets today. The Trump tariff refunds saga is blackly comic. About 20% of tariffs levied on Chinese exporters are paid directly by those exporters. So they get a refund windfall, having largely passed the tariff costs on to US co.s & consumers. I know, right?

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Smearing Sussex (and Me): Responding to Nigel Biggar’s Latest Attack in The Spectator The University of Sussex, Feb 2026, taken by the author. Alan Lester The Spectator has published an article by Nigel Biggar smearing the University of Sussex as repressing students who ‘don&#…

The Spectator published this attack on me & colleagues just as the High Court is considering Sussex’s request for review of the Office for Students fine. It accuses us of ‘repressing’ our students. The magazine ignored my request for to reply. Please disseminate.

alanlester.co.uk/blog/smearin...

The framing of proscription powers really matters, and for the UKSC the important frame of reference is not the chilling effect on pro-Palestinian activism, but the current terrorist threat. This emphasis matters as the challenge to the Palestine Action ban makes its way up to the Court:

The general position is resistance to rights being applicable to substantive criminal law. But what is also missing is the (historic) common law idea of restrictive interpretation of criminal statutes, which points towards the limited value of "common law rights" when statutory language is at issue.