Recent posts by UK Constitutional Lawyers on Bluesky

'in an alternative plan unveiled on 29 April the university said it would pursue a reduction of “up to 300” FTE via a voluntary severance programme, and will continue work on “a range of non-staff cost reductions”.' 1/2

I preferred it when people were in awe of complexity, rather than thinking that making cuts to taxes and budgets solves everything.

Amazon distribution centres are presumably the great jobs of the future. Or were until Bezos mentioned putting tariffs on your bill.

I'm here for Dev Patel entering his Jason Statham era.

Imagine my surprise.

Chilling. But it vastly overstates Russia’s capabilities. Even the fascist intellectuals are idiots.

Is saying "kill your MP" offensive and stupid and really shit for the families of David Amess and Jo Cox? Absolutely yes. Are some people losing their minds over this? Also absolutely yes.

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

I find myself in agreement with this. I don’t think Trump’s approval will ever really recover because the administration’s reaction to things going wrong is always to double down. And it feels like America’s democratic immune system is kicking in.

This is literally the way Orban runs Hungary.

Boomers Against Trump.

Just the 93 Council By-Elections (for 95 seats) this week... - 41x LAB Defences - 31x LDM Defences - 12x CON Defences - 4x GRN Defences - 4x Local Defences - 3x IND Defences

What a bunch of snowflakes

First they came for the lawyers. And threatened them so that they give their services for nothing. And now very few people can risk a legal challenge. I thought Trump would be mired in a quagmire of incompetence. But he seems to be surrounded by experts in ruthless authoritarianism.

If macro = tequila, what are appropriate drinks for other themed sellside events? Single-name options is presumably jaegerbombs.

but but but... Amazon donated $1mn to Trump’s inauguration fund and paid $40mn for a documentary on Melania Trump, the president’s wife. Roughly $28mn of that sum would go directly to the first lady, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. www.ft.com/content/a06e...

www.rte.ie/news/analysi...

London Air Ambulance landed on Trafalgar Square about an hour ago

That tweet where someone wrote that if there had been an orchestrated take over by a US enemy it would look like this..

I’ll be on Woman’s Hour tomorrow talking all things Who Wants Normal? Listen from 10am BBC Radio 4.

*sneezesneezeSNEEZEsneezeblownose* Right now I would support a petition to chop down all the trees in London and concrete over everything that produces pollen *sneezesneezeSNEEZEsneezeblownose*

🧵In March I wrote about how Trump's attacks on science & universities followed the authoritarian playbook & set out Qs as warning signs for escalation. 🚨 THESE ARE NOW HAPPENING This 🧵is on how those warning sign Qs have been realised full post: christinapagel.substack.com/p/warning-si... 1/15

FREE STORY ALERT The whole of my short story "The Black Line" is now up on Authory for free. If you want an urban fantasy tale about identity, loneliness, trains and someone just doing the right thing, then give it five minutes of your time. If you enjoy it, please quote post and pass it on!

Longborough Opera, which has built a reputation for staging Wagner operas, is now running a show that takes aim at the composer’s reputation. @arusbridger.bsky.social interviews the director. www.prospectmagazine...

It's kind of fascinating how team Poilievre's attempt to gloss over blowing a 25 point lead sounds so much like late 2010s Corbynista self-congratulation for achieving glorious defeats

Whoever felled the Sycamore Gap tree, I find it so baffling. It reminds me of Cat Bin Lady in a way: it’s just such strange behaviour that I can’t help obsessing over it - I cannot begin to fathom a motive.

Explaining to my wife that I am genuinely trying to work on developing a work/life balance and not burning out, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and recieving the, not unreasonable response, that this will actually take longer than it took to build Rome.

This is your periodic reminder that I’m actually, among other things, the milkshake columnist for The Atlantic

Carney says Trump is the new Brexit: Mark Carney, “When you break off or substantially rupture trade relationships with your major trading partners, you end up with slower growth, higher inflation, higher interest rates, volatility, weaker currency, a weaker economy.”

The View from Westminster newsletter has gone out. Free sign-up here www.independent.co.uk/newsletters

It was a bad day when the men in the US who live on their own in the woods with their dogs and their guns and their conspiracy theories found each other.

Perhaps they were big fans of the Suez Crisis

‘Carney said the G7 summit hosted by Canada in June would be "very important" in deciding the future path of the global trade war, adding it would "put to the test" whether the group …was still the most "like-minded of like-minded countries".’ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Labour is a hollow blue shadow of its former self. No longer a party of those who seek to do a fair day's darg for a living wage.

Fire the pollsters when they don't say what you want them to say.

So somehow despite delayed trains, cancelled flights, 10-hour power cuts, and emergency Ryanair, I'm onto the second part of this. And on the up side, it all kept me off social media most of the last three days.

Just wanted to note that I’ve spent the past few days in Romania’s Danube delta and it’s extremely beautiful. Here’s the village of Sfantul Gheorge and a white-tailed eagle that took off maybe 100 meters in front of us on the beach (alas iPhone camera!)

although it is fun to see MAGA taking a pratfall, it's always a queasy pleasure watching people in FPTP electoral systems celebrating famous victories that are clearly based on big distortions.

Yeah, but just think of the income all the podcasts and documentaries about unsolved cases and police cock-ups makes for the US

Listening to Tony Fauci on the BBC's The Life Scientific. The man is a true hero..

Impressive work from Scotland there

How could you not vote for someone called Fanjoy? It was an unfair contest.

This is lovely. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/o...

I'm interested in how many candidates standing in the locals have previously stood for another party but I'm guessing (based on how difficult it's been to get other basic information about candidates) that noone knows this?

On my @LBC show... 7pm Govt announces crackdown on sex offenders who claim asylum. 8pm Cross Question with @ArleneFosterUK @StephenGethins @PeterPrinsley @SamanthaTaghoy 9pm Trump's firs 100 days

ICYMI My hour long phone-in with Kemi Badenoch from last night. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOsr...

I know posting Twitter screenshots is poor form around here, but I also don't want anyone to miss this, which seems to sum up the state of the site now.

What a terrible cartoon

Tbqh I’m 💯 on board with this and hope it catches on. www.ft.com/content/0820...

Karoline Leavitt says Trump is "getting frustrated with the amount of effort" it's taking to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Me, arguing the past decade has been for nothing in resolving the underlying problems of British European policy, for @ukandeu.bsky.social @oupolitics.bsky.social

forbiddenstories.org/russia-detai...

Modi. Trump. Putin. Dangerous, dangerous men.

Reprehensible liar caught lying.

THE LAST OF US but it’s Nestorian Pechenegs wanting @timothysnyder.bsky.social translated into Chancery Slavonic

“Under international law, when someone is detained and there’s no account of where the person is, it amounts to enforced disappearances – and this is exactly what has happened.” - @juanitagoebertus.bsky.social @hrw.org www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

When I was writing this piece I did for my sins ask ChatGPT for examples of nouveau riche characters. ChatGPT hallucinated an entire character: Algie Fishwick from the Jeeves and Wooster novels.

"Big Tech companies may be about to discover that not only are they never going to have access to the Chinese market but they are increasingly persona non grata in European markets, too." www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Clubcard complications. enterprise-sharing.ft.com/redeem/6bf8a...

When I was writing this piece I did for my sins ask ChatGPT for examples of nouveau riche characters. ChatGPT came up with Algie Fishwick from the Jeeves and Wooster novels. You all remember Algie, right? Right?

Reform and Trump-loving Tory, the thoroughly inadequate Susan Hall, who went down to one of the heaviest defeats in mayoral history when she stood for London Mayor, has been elected leader of the Conservatives at City Hall. Another piece in the Tories’ ongoing party political suicide pact.

I know the old joke is Black Mirror is “what if future, but bad” but I’ll be honest about three episodes every season now are “what if memory, but sad”

Solid placement of health advice...

A bit of a slag if you listen to some folk

Trump laying more groundwork for insurgency

Two thoughts: first, dear lord he really struggles to speak human, doesn't he? And second, those camera-glasses are just as obnoxious now as they were when Google Glass came out.

That's sobering, but true

This is so depressing. The challenge is to win the argument against these regressive forces, not to find clever (or not so clever) ways to capitulate www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Another reason overseas students should not study in the USA

Keir Starmer has said that “nothing less than the complete re-wiring of the British state” is needed. So what should this transformation look like? Join us tomorrow when Michael Jary, former lead Non-Executive Director, sets out his views 📅📺 www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/how-ca...

I’d be really interested to learn who invested in the privatised ice detention centres.

The first rule of counterinsurgency, long ignored and overlooked, is to stop making new insurgents

Delighted to be speaking at this event on 13 May! Do sign up

The disruption caused by Trump’s tariffs is intense. And will be passed on along the chain no orders from China -> no ships from China -> reduced trucking -> reduced retail www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/04/...

'We sometimes forget the EU has a vote as well when it comes to the reset, at the moment they’re a little bit lukewarm on mutual recognition of conformity assessment… there’s a slightly mercantilist rationale behind this’ @anandmenon.bsky.social in the House of Commons this morning 👇

Stunning photos in NYTimes of Vietnam War.. "President Richard M. Nixon escalated the fighting yet again. Hoping to push Hanoi into a peace deal, he told his advisers: “The bastards have never been bombed like they’re going to be bombed this time.” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/w...

New stack - Fueling Hate: Disinformation Around the Wales Church Fire Despite police confirmation of the culprits, a viral lie blaming Pakistanis, Muslims and Migrants spread across X and Facebook—boosted by dysinfluencers and BJP surrogates marcowenjones.substack.com/p/fueling-ha... #disinformation

Data from the Spanish grid shows how Monday's blackout unfolded minute by minute 👇 demanda.ree.es/visiona/peni...

Not entirely sure what a mint julep is but it feels like this is probably the weather for one.

Is it me at the hairdresser, or is it Jareth the Goblin King?

A group of researchers at the University of Zurich have got into real trouble after subjecting a subreddit to participation in an experiment without their permission. My latest for @newscientist.com gets the university's response www.newscientist.com/article/2478...

Just had a look at the French-German-led collaborative text editor, an alternative to Google Docs. The test doc looks very good, though the project is very much BETA at this stage. github.com/suitenumeriq...

Advertising groups and tech start-ups are racing to find ways to help brands boost their likelihood of surfacing in results from AI chatbots, marking a new era of 'SEO' FT story w Cristina Criddle: on.ft.com/4iAVZxr

Lithuanian apple pie is wild

A very rare example of a Betteridge headline that isn't actually a Betteridge headline because the answer to the question is "too bloody right they are" rather than "no".

A grand way to celebrate Trump’s first 100 days… www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cp...

Advertising groups & tech start-ups are racing to find ways to help brands boost their likelihood of surfacing in results from AI chatbots, marking a new era of “search engine optimisation” www.ft.com/content/9cc6...

We have persuaded France to change rules to stop migrants reaching Britain, Yvette Cooper says www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

This was bound to happen sooner rather than later. Surely it spells the end of the money-making-machine-at-scale promise of stablecoin issuers? Also shows that it will be hard for central banks with digital currencies in the making to sustain zero interest payments. www.cnbc.com/2025/04/23/p...

Indian government sources tell Asian News International Prime Minister Modi has granted the Indian Armed Forces “complete operational freedom” to determine the mode, targets, and timing of their response to the Pahalgam attack.

This is really unfortunate--although not entirely unexpected. If more problems like this crop up it will have a negative impact on the entire biopharma ecosystem. endpts.com/fda-delays-s...

"Battery products are not manufactured here, the conditions are not good enough for this. If our sales of electrical appliances increase, our employment in Germany decreases." Stihl, the producer of high-end chain saws, is electrifying. www.faz.net/aktuell/wirt...

Questions many are asking in Scotland. If Labour is not far right, it is leaning so far to the Right as no longer to occupy the Left, Barely the centre ground. Starmer's Labour no longer is recognisable as the Labour Party of the Red Clydesiders.

As AI embeds itself more deeply in our society, we need a conversation about authenticity in culture, technology and politics, writes @ethanz.bsky.social. www.prospectmagazine...

'In AI or financial services, if we decide to diverge from the EU we could benefit... one risk is if we go our own way or closer to the US we might find ourselves having greater problems accessing those European funds & initiatives' @anandmenon.bsky.social in the House of Commons this morning 👇

How about the other way round in Europe, that we show what consumers gain from trade deals and de minimis?

The temptation to quote everything a certain political commentator posts with "Hope Tony sees this, bro".

This is horrific, with clear parallels to what happened in Germany during the 1930s. Surely this website must be investigated as a hate crime? @goodlawproject.org

“Other countries, Germany and Poland, don’t have that — we want to see that unfair tax on one of America’s great industries removed." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

From the archive, 3 years ago: #Top10 Fake Deaths www.independent.co.uk/voices/top-1...