Colin Murray

100000 thousand places, without replacing funding (lol) would be a hammer blow to English universities (the only ones that will be directly subject to her policy given devolution). It is wantonly destabilising to even suggest it.

We'd like to ensure a much less well educated next generation in the UK is yet another bold Conservative pitch amongst a cornucopia of proposals this week which range from the deranged to the dangerous...

We're across a v dangerous line in "acceptable constitutional thought" today, and the media really are struggling to convey how mad things just got.

This is a lie.

There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years.

But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.

The UK’s recognition of the State of Palestine is meaningless without the proper recognition of international law on the aid flotillas Israel has boarded the Global Sumud flotilla, representing a further escalation of their response to flotillas seeking to deliver aid to Gaza. The

Some thoughts, with @emilyjones.bsky.social & Romain Chuffart, in Critical Legal Thinking, on the UK's recognition of Palestine and the implications it might have had, but conspicuously has not had, for UK Govt responses to the Samud flotilla's seizure:

criticallegalthinking.com/2025/10/07/t...

Thanks, now that's in my head.

My real concern is whether Amicus, the mascot of the Canadian Supreme Court, has also been compelled to change robes.

More in the breathless, breaking stop-the-presses, and not at all confected story, that judges, before they were judges, were involved in practising law. Take 5 seconds to appreciate just how hard into "swivel-eyed loon" Robert Jenrick is being allowed to lean:

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

Hybrid | CLP - Bureaucracy and Distrust: The Civil Service in the Constitution This lecture will be delivered by Dr Ben Yong, as part of the Current Legal Problems Lecture Series 2025-26

I‘m giving a public talk at UCL on Thurs 16 Oct. The title is “Bureaucracy and distrust: the civil service in the constitution” looking at the civil service’s constitutional foundations, and how it might respond to a populist govt. @sirJJkc.bsky.social will chair!
www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/...

How UK could leave ECHR Withdrawal would allow EU to end criminal law enforcement co-operation

Lord Wolfson's legal advice to Kemi Badenoch on ECHR withdrawal has now been published. In this thread I'll highlight a few passages that stood out for me - not meant to be a full analysis (in [] are the paragraph numbers). /1

rozenberg.substack.com/p/how-uk-cou...

Robert Buckland epitomises the branch of conservatism that pays attention to the Union (and the legal commitments underpinning it), values personal liberty and instinctively distrusts silver bullet solutions to multi-faceted issues. Feeling for him today:

conservativehome.com/2025/10/05/r...

Sorry, the combined document is pretty much unreadable. I've reposted.

These papers are held in File CJ 4/12832 in the UK National Archives, which holds many newly released files on the UK Govt's preparations for the HRA and how these were intertwined with the peace talks in NI. Huge thanks to
@garywenvhist.bsky.social for helping me with speedy access to this file!

Today will see a flurry of speculative claims about the GFA & ECHR. Most significantly that rights weren't important/were late additions/didn't mean the whole ECHR in NI law. I'm begging journalists to push back. Civil Servants were planning for Labour's Rights Agenda for NI from the 1997 election:

*late additions. Oops.

Looking ahead to what's coming up this month, I'll be speaking at Durham Cathedral with my colleagues Henry and @benedictdouglas.bsky.social about Magna Carta (1225) as part of the ongoing exhibition

These papers are held in File CJ 4/12832 in the UK National Archives. There are a host of newly released files on the UK Govt's preparations for the HRA and how these were intertwined with the peace talks in NI. Huge thanks to @garywenvhist.bsky.social for helping me with speedy access to this file!

Today will see a flurry of speculative claims about the GFA & ECHR. Most significantly that rights weren't important/were late editions/didn't mean the whole ECHR in NI law. I'm begging journalists to push back. Civil Servants were planning for Labour's Rights Agenda for NI from the 1997 election:

The Wolfson Report treats #NorthernIreland and the international legal commitments of the UK Government - which are very clearly spelled out in the #1998Agreement - as mere political agreements.
Once again it is a Treaty & requires #ECHR rights - not UK versions of them
1/3

It's more than that, it is a parsing of the fact that it is a breach of treaty commitments that causes these consequences. It's an extended effort to talk away anything that isn't domestic law as "not law".

Newcastle too!

Conor Gearty · Unwelcome Remnant: Erasing the Human Rights Act The Supreme Court is quietly editing the Human Rights Act out of existence. In cases where human rights cannot be...

‘The​ current members of the Supreme Court, ten men and two women, all of them white, seem to regard the Human Rights Act as an unwelcome remnant of a past era.’

In his final piece for the 𝘓𝘙𝘉, Conor Gearty writes on the Supreme Court’s reinterpretation of the HRA: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

This detailed demolition of @gullyfoyleuk.bsky.social's "75 Brexit Benefits" by @alanbeattie.bsky.social deserves wider circulation.

Intellectual garbage disposal is a valuable public service!

It is quite amazing how little is here. Hope everyone involved is happy with the pay day.

Wolfson Final Report | Conservatives Wolfson Final Report

Like most apologias, the Wolfson report isn't supposed to be read, it's just supposed to exist to provide cover. But this is really pretty limited cover. If anyone is bothered, note the utter lack of any references re the GFA.

It's all just vibes:

www.conservatives.com/wolfson-fina...

Surely the real scandal is giving a bar of soap as a birthday present...

No, you're not going crazy. You did read this and also read about the PSNI arresting people in London for being members of a proscribed organization.

Freedom is just another name for “a gap in the law”.

"Our credible plan is also an acrostic."

(This is, genuinely, the actual Conservative press release.)

This is the "it was Agatha all along" theory of the UK Constitution. We were distracted by the EU, and the ECHR was the real big bad! Leaving it will fix everything!

Leaving will not magically change any of these issues IF the UK still wants to be a liberal democracy:

share.google/GCZ1CrP8raUU...