Top recent posts by UK Constitutional Lawyers on Bluesky

The Canadian election is definitely the only election in a developed country I can remember where the central pitch of the winning party was essentially “this country should exist”.

“Famously commonsensical Canada reminds us that some things — patriotism, self-respect, dignity — matter more than short-term growth.” My column on the meaning of Carney’s stunning victory. www.ft.com/content/f063...

Looks like Musk is boosting all Conservative tweets and downgrading Liberal ones for the Canadian election. Not even trying to hide it.

Carney after winning the Canadian federal election: “America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country - never. But these are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us. That will never ever happen.”

The White House has blasted ‘hostile’ Amazon for planning to show customers the true cost of tariffs. Looks like all the dignity-free asskissing and bribery by any other name doesn’t buy you a free pass.

*sniffs back tears* It’s…it’s beautiful

OK, there is one metric by which I think Trump is doing well. Much further to go, though

Would have thought the White House would be excited to show Americans how much money foreigners are paying them... ... unless that's not actually how tariffs work after all 🤔

AskHistorians has joined with thirty other research- and academia-focused subreddits to issue this statement condemning recent and ongoing efforts to undermine scholarly research and intellectual freedom in the United States. Please share widely! www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

If only there was a really recent electoral example in a parliamentary system in an English speaking Commonwealth country that showed the political effects of sucking up to Trump…

"We only need to look at Pierre Poilievre and the Canadian Conservatives to see what is possible." Robert Jenrick, last summer

Good Morning. The Telegraph's first take.

More great news. 92% of patients who received only an immune-based treatment to help their own immune systems shrink their tumors showed no detectable signs of disease after two years. Poll

Sod it. I haven't done a Columbothon in a while. Reply with: - A screengrab of a donation of goods/cash (ANY amount) to PAWS - Name of an actor of your choice. I will give you a fake plot summary of a Columbo episode in which they are the murderer. Reskeet to spread the word. Kitties need food.

The US Navy has lost a $60 million F-18 jet in the sea after it fell overboard when the USS Harry S. Truman did a sharp turn.

People are facing jail sentences for giving water to the thirsty and food to the hungry. This is happening in the EU. How did our authorities become so disconnected from the most fundamental instincts of human decency? euobserver.com/Migration/ar...

Going after Amazon and Harvard at the same time is some kind of genius move. Good luck guys!

Morning Bluesky. Mark Carney’s Liberal Party has won the Canadian election, but it’s still too early to tell if he can form a majority government. The Conservatives outperformed their polling but leader Pierre Poilievre may still lose his Ottawa seat.

A veteran colleague emails: "At last, an indisputable achievement that only Trump could have pulled off. Instant success in Ukraine didn't quite work, nor did his promise for Gaza, but surely only he could have brought about the Canadian result."

Unbound did precisely fuck-all PR for my book when it came out, despite promises. Didn't even send copies to the obvious people. It was a Brexit satire. Easiest sell on earth at the time. I wouldn't piss on Archna Sharma and John Mitchinson if they were on fire. Avoid their revived Boundless brand.

In three months, Pierre Poilievre went from undoubtedly Canada’s next prime minister to unemployed. All thanks to the American fascist he tried to emulate.

An entire article reporting Blair’s views on fossil fuels which neglects to report that one of his main sources of revenue is the government of Saudi Arabia. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Say hello to the African Space Agency, launched by the African Union in Cairo. It brings together the space programs of all 55 member states, including the advanced plans of Egypt, Libya and SA. Lots of brilliant ideas. They’re likely to work closely with the European Space Agency. ⛔️ Musk.

Controversial opinion, but this is a bad idea. It arguably violates the Refugee Convention, which has very limited exceptions for refusing to process claims. It'll act as a de facto death penalty for many, which violates numerous laws. There's something more though. 1/ www.bbc.com/news/article...

Ukraine has hit an oil depot in Novorossiysk. #explodey

Most satisfying day of 2025 so far. www.ft.com/content/5f9a...

10 years of the Plastic Bags Directive. Taking centuries to degrade, they were among the top litter in the EU, often ingested by animals or breaking into microplastics & ending up in our food. By the end of 2025, our goal is 40 bags per person per year. Are you below this target?

Birth bonus. Sigh.

This is a) unsurprising b) unpleasant c) in my humble opinion, a political mistake

Trump's cabinet gathered around him, exchanging concerned glances behind his back while assuring him over and over again that China's, "definitely going to call," with the too-earnest energy of a girl's group chat after Stacy has what was clearly a one night stand with a club promoter.

Not my country not my expertise etc but looks to me the Canadian election gives Trudeau's place in history a little bit of a leg-up. Handled Trump well: tried charm, when that didn't work prepared tariff retaliation v quickly, rallied nation with great speech & stepped down at the right time. Fair?

Thanks to a generous tip off I have been suggesting for some time that one of Trump's top priorities for a UK trade deal was the Open at Turnberry www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/a...

To state the obvious: It is hard to conduct effective foreign policy when being seen as too aligned with you represents a potential 25+ point electoral liability for prospective partners.

This EU Commission message getting mentioned in the CBC post-election broadcast is not something that would have happened in this way a decade ago

Doing the rounds of BBC local radio discussing Labour's plan to publish nationality "league tables" of foreign offenders. Put simply, there are absolutely no benefits to it, but the risks are huge. Inevitably it feeds far right narrative, leads to hostility against nationalities and embeds division.

First polls have closed in the Canadian election. Should start to get a picture shortly.

The Prime Minister of Canada now, you say? Oh yeah, I know him. Nice guy. We had a long chat about steam trains once.

I'd caution against pushing this message too hard. Fundementally these deals are just extortion payments, and Trump sets the ransom. If he decides he wants the optics of lots of "deals" more than he cares about the substance of what's in them, he'll have no problem signing many "deals" quickly.

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.”

Thoughts and prayers for Jeff Bezos, who spaffed $40m on a Melania biopic and still ends up on the Trump naughty list.

"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...

🚨🚨 It has been clear for a while now but #Canada, propelled by the leadership of @mark-carney.bsky.social is becoming a central global player and key alley of Europe both in terms of security, politics and trade in the wake of US abandoning its leadership. www.politico.eu/article/mark...

“Unlike some others we could mention.” **WINK WINK WINK** All the diplomatic subtlety of a charging rhino.

Lithuanian apple pie is wild

Property prices Britain’s last line of defence against populism

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.

And the Telegraph has found its angle.

“The RN’s leaders, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, have distanced themselves from Mr Trump since his inauguration, worried that his anti-European tariffs and his supporters’ habit of giving Nazi-style straight-arm salutes play badly with their voters” www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

I understand Harvard trying to appease Trump through a name change but it sends the wrong signal. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Someone at China Total Landscaping in New Jersey is getting a lot of confusing emails at the moment.

“the offer of Canadian membership can regain the lost momentum on JEF since the new UK government came to power and give the framework a new impetus in a deteriorating security environment” www.rusi.org/explore-our-...

It would be interesting to know if local media reports this differently, but if I relied only on national broadsheets I would think that there really is only one issue for the English local elections. Immigration. Literally nothing else. Have UK politics stopped discussing other issues?

Thing that i'm legit intrigued about: On a technical level, how IS a toilet designated as for 'men' or 'women'? Because its so common now, especially in bars, for them to just have some weird icon on them where you're meant to pick the one you associate with. Are you weird stick graphic A or B?

Mark Carney’s Liberals have won the Canadian election in a remarkable turnaround aided by Donald Trump’s “51st state” rhetoric. Earlier this month, @nixonsimon.bsky.social argues Carney has “delivered a masterclass” in how to deal with Trump. www.prospectmagazine...

Mark Carney back up to 79 per cent as next Canadian PM on Polymarket.

Can we get Trump to tweet in support of Farage for Thursday? Maybe start talking up annexing Norfolk at the same time.

Good piece by @morganj0nes.bsky.social. Labour needs to stop trying to win the 2023 Uxbridge by-election. labourlist.org/2025/04/loca...

‘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...

A must-watch - a video that exposes the racist nature of Israeli occupation of Palestinian land & Labour's support for it: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Carney won because he was the candidate most ordinary, least square.

Exceptionally funny that the only hint of a policy Badenoch has even gestured towards is both correct and electoral poison for her

“To date, much of Ukraine’s air defense emerged from a mix of Western support and ingenious adaptations of legacy weapons systems. That will have to change with new investments in high-powered microwaves, high-energy lasers, and other low-cost ways” www.csis.org/analysis/few...

Clegg is not taken seriously in Brussels, where he is primarily associated with his lobby work for Meta. In his own way he is as delusionally unserious as Vance.

Oh please we've all done it.

Daphne has cancelled Tuesday, the Canadian Tories, and especially Pierre Poilievre

Guess how many permanent HE jobs there are in History in the entirety of the United Kingdom right now. Three: that's right, three. One at Oxford, one at Cambridge, one at UCL. We have got to totally change the way we still see PhD training and numbers. www.jobs.ac.uk/search/histo...

🎮 New post on gamification and real life 🎮 In case you are bored with the Canadian election - you monsters you - here's a quick thread on whether our broligarch overlords are confusing doing well in video games with doing well in life. 1/n benansell.substack.com/p/the-nongam...

Humming O Canada with a big grin on my face this morning

This is mind-blowing

Well to be fair, the next Bishop of Rome is going to be someone wearing a red hat.

Instead of trying as hard as possible to negotiate a global switch out of fossil fuels, we should put our efforts into carbon capture [so far as I can tell not proven as a practical solution at scale] fusion [LoL] and AI to improve efficiency of fossil fuel use [give me a break!].

“Chinese and Russian satellites in both low Earth orbit and geostationary Earth orbit continue to display more and more advanced maneuvering capabilities, demonstrating operator proficiency and tactics…that can be used for space warfighting” www.csis.org/analysis/spa...

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.

India orders 26 new Rafale for its aircraft carriers. “… a key India-specific enhancement will be that the aircraft will be able to take off and land from a short deck with a ski jump, which is a feature of Indian aircraft carriers” indianexpress.com/article/indi...

It’s the hope that kills you. www.spectator.co.uk/article/coul...

Got almost enough Columbo episode summaries in the replies to the quoted post for a whole season now. Read, enjoy, share and if you want one of your own just follow the link included and donate. Your money goes to supporting an animal shelter help kittens!

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

CDS Radakin “said the military must improve its ability to convert applicants into recruits. Insisting there is no lack of interest in enlisting, he said that around 13 people apply for every military recruit successfully taken on” www.ft.com/content/bb66...

This story is bananas. ‘At 10:45 a.m. on a Saturday in late March, Scherer — armed with Trump’s cellphone number — called him anyway. “Who’s calling?” Trump asked. Scherer identified himself.’ www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

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

once upon a time, I made a small contribution to the game theory literature:

One thing that doesn't happen very often in journalism is positive feedback. It's mostly tumbleweed, with occasional criticism. This morning I've had a lovely email from someone I'm working with. Editors, do this if you can find a moment. It makes ALL the difference.

🚨🚨Major seminal ruling by @eucourtofjustice.bsky.social in Case C-181/23 , Commission v Malta (Citizenship by investment) where the Court now has declared that the Maltese investor citizenship scheme is contrary to EU law. Short 🧵

Theroux, picking on an illegal Occupation. What a bastard.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

bahaha "The only laudable Trump action I can think of is his push to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, but he’s doing that only because he impulsively blew up Barack Obama’s smoothly running nuclear deal with Iran." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Worth noting the guy who owns the company who fired this Texas lawyer is Bill Foley the owner of Bournemouth AFC. So rival fans, if you want something to sledge the Cherries with, here it is.

Today's constitutional

don't mind me, just going Full Prepper and looking up hand-cranked/solar FM radios and torches after yesterday's massive power outage

Events, dear boy, events.

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

One of the best cases for Democrats using the sort of rhetoric Pritzker did is that it provokes exactly this sort of totally unhinged reaction

Imagine it over frantic Mumford banjo playing and it's even worse.

Benefit cuts cost money in the long run, says @TrussellUK bit.ly/42RSLQ4 govt doesn’t seem to realise that relieving poverty is investing in the future and good economics

Amazon’s Starlink rival.

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...

Trumpism and the European Far Right as expressions of a fundamental societal refusal to accept the role of worker supply and demand in migration and labour markets

The only way that this could even remotely work in practice is to retry the case from another country. A number of countries for example class being LGBTQIA+ as a "sexual offence", and more than one cloaks that judgement in different ways, such as public indecency, and worse.

This weeks council by-election list might be a little late... 😅

One of the reasons I would not even rate as a beta on the Andrew Tate scale is that I cannot understand why you’d need more than one watch.