Blogs

Jack of Kent

• How Liberal Democrat MPs voted against making it far harder for companies to misuse libel
  The Defamation Bill is almost the law of the land. When it is enacted and put into effect, the law of libel in England and Wales will, at a stroke, become less illiberal.  It will be harder to bring, and thereby harder to threaten, many of the libel actions which...
  
  
• “The silencing of the Munchkins” – what the BBC should have done.
  Over at the Observer, Nick Cohen has done a brilliant piece on the BBC’s witlessness over what to do with Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead.  The silencing of the Munchkins must rank as one of the most inept acts of censorship Britain has seen. [...] As for the BBC,...
  
  
• Should companies be able to sue for libel?
  Ahead of Tuesday’s vote on whether there should be safeguards as to when companies can sue for libel, this was my 2010 post at the Guardian:   Should companies be able to sue for libel? The recently launched Lord Lester libel reform bill includes a provision that companies would have...
  
  
• How to be a trainee solicitor
  Legal Cheek has today published my words of advice.
  
  
• Margaret Thatcher in perspective
  Margaret Thatcher is dead.   There are already celebrations, and there are already those taking offence at these celebrations (as if much of England did not already celebrate burning the effigy of another controversial figure every 5th of November). Of course, it is not odd that there are celebrations at...
  
  
• The sentencing of Mick Philpott
  On the face of it, the sentence imposed on Mick Philpott today seemed lenient. He was found guilty, along with his wife and another, of starting a fire which killed six children. In those circumstances, the reported fifteen years appeared inappropriate: it would mean little over two years for each...
  
  
• What we know – and what we don’t know – about the death of Lucy Meadows
  A week ago primary school teacher Lucy Meadows was found dead at her home. Over the last week there has been a great deal of interest in the case.  There has been a vigil outside a national newspaper office; there are petitions calling for an individual journalist to be sacked;...
  
  
• The death of Lucy Meadows
  Lucy Meadows is dead.   She was a popular teacher at a primary school. But on Tuesday, police and an ambulance were called to her home. She was found dead. Her death is not being treated as suspicious. Already various people have said she took her own life. Helen Belcher...
  
  
• Vicky Pryce: what should the Sunday Times have done?
  Over at the Spectator my friend Nick Cohen has blogged about the disclosure of evidence by the Sunday Times  in respect of the prosecutions of Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce.   Nick in turn links to a statement from the Crown Prosecution Service about this disclosure.  There are two points of particular interest in...
  
  
• Human Rights Act and Bingham’s Question: which rights are we to discard?
  So the Human Rights Act and the European Court of Human Rights are in the news.   One Tory Minister wants to repeal the Act, and another wants us to withdraw from the Court.  The extent to which either of these propositions make sense is expertly set out by Adam...