Category Archives: England

‘I won’t testify. I’m afraid’

June 27, 2008 – 7:24 am

Two things jumped out at me after sitting today’s evidence exam (apart from the fact that the seats in the Examination Schools are bloody uncomfortable). The first was the SCOTUS ruling in Heller, where the Court held 5-4 that owning a gun for self-defence purposes was a Second Amendment right, while the second was the [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Defence, Economics, Human/Civil rights, Law | Comments (19)

David Davis for Freedom

June 19, 2008 – 5:38 am

The GOP has always had something of a libertarian wing - albeit one bludgeoned into submission at George W Bush’s hands. The UK’s Conservatives, by contrast, were for many years able to do without. Margaret Thatcher put paid to that, although she had a huge fight with elements of her own party before she could [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Personal liberty, Politics, Terrorism | Comments (16)

A new way of policing “doof-doof”

June 17, 2008 – 8:20 pm

When my husband and I first moved in together, we lived in a set of terrace houses. We’d lived there about two years when new tenants moved in two doors down. The new tenants were Columbian exchange students, and I don’t think they took their studies seriously. What they did take seriously was partying hard [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Fark!, Intellectual property, Law, Media, Music, Personal liberty, Society | Comments (4)

Inherited constituency v. inherited wealth

May 20, 2008 – 6:28 am

A couple of my tutors here have made the point that - contra the situation in the US, where race is central - if there is something festering and smelly in England, class will be at the bottom of it. The evidence, in Oxford as elsewhere, is hiding in plain sight: the hundreds of years [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Politics | Comments (5)

Defamation and anonymous blogging

October 22, 2007 – 11:40 pm

Has anyone else ever put comments up in online forums, or in response to newspaper stories or blog posts? If you’re reading this post, I suspect that you might have been tempted to do so. You know the drill then. You are required to enter your name in a box headed “Name”, and then you [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Blogging, Internet, Law, Media, Privacy, Technology | Comments (10)

How can they do it?

July 4, 2007 – 7:59 pm

Jane from Diversion Cubed was wondering how on earth people who had sworn the Hippocratic oath to heal other human beings could allegedly become involved with suicide bombing plots. I can’t fathom it myself. How can you work all day trying to heal people and help people, and then wish to wreak death and injury [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Politics, Terrorism | Comments (6)

British sex ed not up to par

February 12, 2007 – 6:52 pm

I see that a recent survey by the Family Planning Association has established that there is widespread ignorance in Britain about contraception and “the facts of life”. This is interesting. As I’ve disclosed before, I attended an English secondary school after spending a couple of years at an Australian secondary school. When I arrived at [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Sex | Comments (4)

First remove the beam in your own eye…

August 11, 2006 – 6:08 pm

There’s not much in the news to cheer one up these days. However, I guess even a bit of serious irritation is a change from down right depressing. What could have irritated me so?
According to an article in The Age, Hannah Pool from the UK’s Evening Standard has decided after a stay of some few [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Politics | Comments (0)