davidallengreen

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

RWANDA BILL

Just a reminder that it is not "unconstitutional" for House of Lords to delay a controversial Bill.

The Parliament Acts make this a feature of our constitution.

The House of Commons can be asked to think again in next parliamentary session. If passed again, then an Act.

In the current circumstances, a year's delay even gives the opportunity for the government to seek a mandate for the Rwanda Bill at the general election.

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

Rwanda

The Prime Minister must have bullish internal government legal advice saying that all appeals can be easily dealt with within 10-12 weeks, including to court of appeal and supreme court.

Or perhaps he does not.

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

At a press conference today, Colonel Nicholson confirmed that the Bridge over the Kwai river will be ready by 1 July.

“I am determined to get this done,’ he affirmed, “ despite it plainly being a rather bad thing.”

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

Law and lore, and state failure

The quiet collapse of the county court system in England and Wales

By me, at Substack:
https://emptycity.substack.com/p/law-and-lore-and-state-failure

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

@phaedral Bless

rachel_a, 1 month ago to uk

Hugh Grant has been priced out of his ‘phone hacking’ lawsuit against The Sun, after learning it would cost him more money to win than it would cost Rupert Murdoch.

"At the right moment and at the right amount, a skilled litigator can bring a civil claim to a speedy halt": https://davidallengreen.com/2024/04/how-the-civil-justice-system-forced-hugh-grant-to-settle-and-why-an-alternative-to-that-system-is-difficult-to-conceive/ writes @davidallengreen

#Part36 #civilJustice #settling #litigation #HughGrant #UK #England #liability #accountability #press #impunity #RupertMurdoch #Murdoch #damages

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

The quiet collapse of the county court system

Why there are now civil justice deserts in England and Wales

By me, at @prospect_uk

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/65754/the-quiet-collapse-of-the-county-court-system

kairangahau, 1 month ago to random

@davidallengreen In Aotearoa New Zealand, under s 24 of the Defamation Act 1992, a plaintiff can seek a declaration only and is entitled to indemnity costs (subject to a discretion not to grant them). A broader application of this principle might be an effective way of dealing with Calderbank offers, especially if damages are not the central focus of the claim

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

How the civil justice system forced Hugh Grant to settle against the Sun

And why an alternative to that system is difficult to conceive

New, by me

https://emptycity.substack.com/p/why-the-civil-justice-system-forced

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

Perfectly constitutional for the House of Lords to insist that Commons think again.

And, under the Parliament Acts,House of Lords can require Commons to think again in the next parliamentary session.

If MPs still in favour, then Bill becomes law.

Lords cannot veto, only delay.

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

News media yet again full of threats by governing party politicians to leave the ECHR.

And yet again nothing at all about how this would breach the Good Friday Agreement.

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

Asserting we haven’t got a constitution because it is not written down is like saying your washing machine doesn’t exist because you haven’t got the manual

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

"If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit."

Memories of being a law student in the mid-late 1990s. Even before social media, law and popular culture somehow managed to combine.

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

NEW

Three public inquiries are currently showing us failures of the British state

In dong so the inquiries are doing what parliament should have been able to do

By me, at Prospect Magazine

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/65694/public-inquiries-show-the-state-is-failing-david-allen-green

But in each, the same problems recur. There is alack of useful communication within the public bodies concerned. There is little or no meaningful accountability for those who have made bad decisions. There is reluctance or outright opposition to the inquiry being given relevant materials by officials. And perhaps most strikingly of all, there is the realisation that what parliament, the media and the public—and indeed ministers—were told at the time was very different to what was actually happening. It almost feels as if, like in a pulp detective novel, we are being told in a final chapter about what was really occurring while we were being misled and misdirected. The implication of this delayed accountability is that the “real-time” forms of accountability are useless. It is not simply that Westminster and Whitehall fail to be efficient; they fail even to be efficacious. Ministerial question times are theatre, if not pantomime. Select committee hearings are just for show. Ministers are often as uninformed as those who are questioning them. It does not have to be this way. Almost none of the information that is now coming to light in these three inquiries needed to be held back for these subsequent formal proceedings.

ChrisMayLA6, 1 month ago to politics

Alan Bates is already the folk hero of the Horizon IT debacle, but his inquiry evidence confirms that in Bates the Govt & Post Office picked the wrong adversary; his steely determination already depicted on TV to devastating effect, is one of a key reason successive Govt.s & PO management teams have been unable to bury this injustice.

While nothing about the actions of the PO & Govt. in this case now surprise me, this a picture of what is wrong with Britain.

#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/09/alan-bates-tells-inquiry-post-office-spent-decades-lying-and-trying-to-discredit-me

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

Mild-mannered Everton being continuously shafted while brash Chelsea and Man City flaunt their extravagances is pretty much a metaphor for UK generally.

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

This would explain so much, about so many modern collections on public show

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/09/german-art-museum-fires-worker-for-hanging-his-own-painting-in-gallery

davidallengreen, 1 month ago to random

The word atheism should always be in lower-case.

It means a disbelief in gods.

I am such an atheist: I disbelieve in gods generally (and not just in one in particular), like I disbelieve in gnomes and dragons and other supernatural and paranormal things.

And the word does not mean anything more than that.

My a-theism means no more to me than my a-gnomism.

The problem comes when one tries to convert lower-case atheism to upper-case Atheism, with the implications of its own belief system.