Colm O'Cinneide

Robert Jenrick lists 30 'activist judges' he vows to axe in war on UK's open border In a bold move, Robert Jenrick is set to unveil a controversial plan targeting what he calls 'activist' judges, at the Conservative Party conference.

We've already seen judges and lawyers being targeted as "enemies of the people". This increases risk of threats/attacks, while undermining judiciary as a whole. Couple it with Tory plans to scrap immigration tribunals and legal aid for people seeking asylum and it shows utter contempt for the law.

I would add one thing: we are bombarded with two claims: 1) the UK can leave the ECHR without lowering human rights protection and 2) the ECHR significantly limits what the government can do and hence the UK has to leave it.
These cannot both be true. /1

Notable that there has been no mention of a referendum on ECHR exit. Just a mandate via a General Election.

Just not sure, really not sure, that I'd follow Kemi Badenoch as an example of the USA as a country that is protecting human rights without being in the ECHR.

How exactly would one write an opinion that the government is irreparably harmed by having to wait to deport people to die in Venezuela?

What an utter disgrace. Noem's actions to "vacate" Secretary Mayorkas' grant of TPS over the direct command in the statute that no early termination can be done was flagrantly unlawful. And yet the majority offers not a SINGLE word of explanation for why they think she could do that.

Shameless!

Often it’s better to stand back from the day to day soap opera of politics and look at the bigger picture.

To everyone in Britain's Jewish Community: you are not alone. We will not let hate or those who spread it win. We stand with you.

On Yom Kippur many Jewish people in Britain have their phones off to mark the holy day.

As it ends at 723pm, some will hear the tragic Manchester news for the first time.

At that time, please join many of us to send a message of solidarity to British Jews.Thanks Together coalition for proposing.

Important to hear Hilary Benn affirm, in his Labour Conference Speech, that the official position is that the UK leaving the ECHR would indeed undermine the UK's commitments under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement 1998:

Harry Cole here, suggesting that because someone in Utah shot Charlie Kirk 3 weeks ago, Keir Starmer shouldn’t be nasty about Nigel Farage in the U.K.

Massive banner in the crowd at Galatasaray v Liverpool about humanity lost in Gaza. Uefa camera man cut away quickly when he zoomed out and realised.

The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers WIRED spoke with more than 200 federal workers in dozens of agencies to learn what happened as the Department of Government Efficiency tore through their offices.

NEW

WIRED led the way in reporting on Elon Musk's efforts to dismantle the US government. My colleagues and I spoke to 100s of employees at dozens of agencies to understand what happened.

This is the definitive story of DOGE as told by those who experienced it

www.wired.com/story/oral-h...

Robert Jenrick is also quoted here as saying that the Equality Act & Climate Change Act all have 'had the effect of undermining the sovereignty of parliament'. Curious as to why & how he thinks this. (Assuming undermining parliamentary sovereignty isn't just equated to 'legislation I don't like'.)

He’s been found out this week… the question is when the press turn on him and move back to Boris/Jenrick instead

Appreciate this experimental test of what I would have assumed: direct interventions to depolarize a polarized politics will not durably succeed absent addressing the social factors reinforcing it.

I think of this in terms of politics occurring in different modes; you'd need modal transformation.

is this not just kidnapping?

In December 2023, Special Counsel Jack Smith asked SCOTUS to grant cert before judgement to hear Trump’s immunity appeal.

The court rejected that request and didn’t issue its immunity decision until July 2024.

Trump’s federal cases never made it to trial before the November 2024 election.

Where is UCU when you need it?

Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds

open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

Disabled Nigerian man living in UK for 38 years wins appeal against deportation Anthony Olubunmi George, who arrived in 1986 and has no criminal convictions, given right to remain

Advocates of the UK Home Office/ministers getting more or less unlimited discretion to decide deportation cases, free from any real substantive judicial scrutiny, should be asked about this case.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

This story is worth a read, but it's so frustrating to see, since I know virtually everyone quoted in it (and the author) and ... there were *lots* of people warning of these coming dangers. Andreessen became a baby about his feelings long before taking offense to the slight from the Biden admin.

Exclusive: US could hit entire International Criminal Court with sanctions soon The United States is considering imposing sanctions as soon as this week against the entire International Criminal Court, putting the court's day-to-day operations in jeopardy in retaliation for investigations of suspected Israeli war crimes.

Not unexpected. Still bad. Really bad. #ICC
www.reuters.com/world/europe...

Disabled Nigerian man living in UK for 38 years wins appeal against deportation Anthony Olubunmi George, who arrived in 1986 and has no criminal convictions, given right to remain

Advocates of the UK Home Office/ministers getting more or less unlimited discretion to decide deportation cases, free from any real substantive judicial scrutiny, should be asked about this case.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Reform are so online that they think it would be popular to deport people who’ve been lawfully in the U.K. for years. Labour are so online that they can’t quite condemn it as abhorrent. And everyone else is so online they think Reform’s proposals might be popular.

Falling Far and Fast

This piece by Robert Post is excellent. I especially like that he traces the Trump Administration's authoritarian trampling on the First Amendment to, in part, the Roberts Court's extreme unitary executive theory. verfassungsblog.de/turn-against...

It was nice to be included in "The Living Library of Knowledge" with my attempt to explain 1) law and morality in war, 2) the current crisis of compliance in the laws or war, and 3) nuclear deterrence.

www.joinexpeditions.com/experts/4630...

The true question right now is whether you believe in the moral character of the British public. If you do, you'll want to have the fight with Reform. You'll believe that the public will hate the idea of breaking up families, spying on & deporting people who've worked here for years.

Wikipedia and the Internet Archive are the last two fragments left of the internet that we were promised in the 1990s.

Utterly absurd.

For instance I know one couple - one Iranian, one Greek who have lived here for forty years under indefinite leave to remain permission. They spent their adult lives here. worked. Paid taxes. Bought homes. Had children who live & work here

Real "I saw Lord Hermes dancing with the devil at the crossroads" energy. The whole report is that a lawyer, then in private practice, gave free advice to a charity regarding the law. And if anyone avoided deportation as a result? That would be because they were legally entitled not to be deported.