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Remember the fuss about Johnson’s WhatsApp messages during Covid, the government’s legal challenge to the S.21 demand made by the Covid Inquiry’s Chair and it losing that challenge? The issue of why the PM’s Principal Private Secretary turned on WhatsApp’s ‘disappearing message‘ function for the PM’s WhatsApp group just before the Inquiry was announced is exercising it right now. Now we have the Scottish version – only it appears to be worse, both for the Scottish politicians and civil servants…

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October is Black History Month. Labour marked this by issuing a Tweet saying that it is: “the time to celebrate the achievements and contributions of Black communities and acknowledge the inequality they still face.” To this end, Labour’s message went on: “Labour will introduce a Race Equality Act to tackle structural racial inequalities.” Here’s the problem with this proposal. There already exists a law to do just this. The Equality Act. In force since 1 October 2010. Passed by Labour…

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Cyclefree gives her view Jonathan Sumption, former Law Lord, eminent historian of the 100 Years’ War, once described by Alastair Campbell as the “cleverest man in Britain” with a “brain the size of a planet” has had a long and distinguished legal career, having previously been a fellow of Magdalen College, specialising in medieval history. Like many with high intelligence he can, however, be naive about others’ baser motives. His Reith lectures raised important questions about the balance between law…

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Two Met officers appear at Westminster Magistrates Court today – one charged with misconduct in public office for abusing his position for sexual purposes and the other for misuse of computer systems. Neither of their names are published, unlike ordinary defendants. Even the Cumberland police are not immune: recently an officer was dismissed for running a pornographic Twitter account under a false name and not declaring it as an outside business interest. The Home Secretary over the weekend issued a…

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On Monday the government finally came up with a “take it or leave it” compensation offer to the subpostmasters. £600,000. It was described by Kevin Hollinrake, Minister for Postal Affairs, as “providing a generous uplift” on compensation payments already made. Let’s see how generous it really is. Some subpostmasters were convicted as long as 23 years ago, between 2000 – 2015, the majority in the earlier years. That is compensation of between £26,000 and £75,000 pa. The sums on offer…

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“In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.” (Orwell -1946) The last 2 days have given us 2 examples of how language is used to obscure the indefensible. But not from the political world. For a change. Example No 1 The  announcement by BP that its CEO, Bernard Looney, left because, when providing answers in an earlier investigation about his relationships with colleagues, “he now accepts that he was not fully transparent in his previous…

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What on earth has been going on at the British Museum? For two decades it appears that Greek and other classical antiquities from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD in store have gone missing, stolen or damaged. It is now estimated that around 2,000 items have gone missing. Their value is inestimable. Some reappear on eBay and elsewhere “for sale“. February 2021: An antiquities dealer, Ittai Gradel, notifies the museum that 3 items belonging to it – specifically…

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Admittedly, it’s early days and it’s by its Legal Department (which usually manages to maintain some modicum of integrity and competence – or tries to anyway.) Small mercies. What has it done? The Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, Alex Chalk, and Attorney-General, Victoria Prentis have announced an independent inquiry into the Andy Malkinson case. This will be into all the relevant authorities: the Greater Manchester Police (1 of 5 police forces in special measures), the Crown Prosecution…

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