28th April 2009
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Inner and Middle Temple libraries to merge.
I discovered this on Facebook and wrote a piece on my Charon blog. I would be very interested in your thoughts on this. Please comment |
Identity theft 'set to soar' during recession
Independent: The number of Britons whose credit rating is damaged due to identity theft looks set to nearly double during the coming five years.
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Will Parliament ever agree a means to stop the abuse of expenses?
Independent: In the last few years a string of scandals involving the inappropriate claiming of expenses by British politicians has brought public trust in our politics to a new low. |
Humiliated Brown forced to shelve plans to give MPs daily allowance
• Cameron accuses PM of presiding over a farce
• Standards watchdog rejects No 10 idea
Guardian
Family Law in the news
Family Law is very much in the news at the moment with the new 'Openness in Family Courts' The Times covers this extensively today
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John Bolch, Family Lore, interviews Nick Langford, ex-Fathers-4-Justice
They speak about what Fathers 4 Justice stood for, the group's (and his) views on the family justice system, opening up the system, divorce reform and reconstructing iron age roundhouses
Listen to the podcast |
Editor pick of the day
28th April 2009
The Independent: Woman accused of breaching noisy sex asbo
Neighbours of a woman who ended up in court for her noisy love-making were savouring peace and quiet today after she was locked up accused of breaking her anti-social behaviour order. Caroline Cartwright, 48, was remanded in custody until 5 May charged with three breaches of her Asbo in just 10 days.
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23rd April 2009
Subscribers to barrister Daniel Barnett's Employment Law Bulletin have raised more than £10,000 – in less than two weeks!
Starlight is dedicated to lighting up the lives of seriously and terminally ill children by granting them their dearest wishes.
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G20 protest footage shows moment Ian Tomlinson's head hit the pavement
• Video reveals fresh details about events leading up to alleged assault on Ian Tomlinson
• IPCC attempted to prevent broadcast of truncated version by Channel 4 News
Guardian
Gordon Brown orders MPs' expenses shakeup
Guardian: Eve of budget move to reform MP payments amid backlash fears
Law news stories...
22nd April here...
Editor pick of the day
22nd April 2009
Burglars caught in taxi 'owned by victim'
Two burglars were caught after booking a taxi home from a raid in a car driven by one of their victims.
Foreign Office accused of hindering human rights lawyers in Gaza Strip
• War crimes investigators blocked from territory
• British officials decline to provide entry letters
Guardian: British lawyers attempting to build a war crimes case against Israel have been blocked from entering the Gaza Strip because the Foreign Office has refused to support their work, the Guardian has learned.
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And one of the best national anthems in the world - Russia - in celebration of my new section on snippets from the World's press - today Pravda.
Russian National Anthem (Ok - the old Soviet version) I like it.
22nd April 2009
Speed dating for the credit-crunched?… and a revised forecast for law schools.
For some bizarre reason I thought of the old dance marathons in the USA during the depression when I read the news that BPP Law School has set up a new form of speed dating - giving students the opportunity to meet prospective employers; allowing them three minutes in which to impress the training partner or members of the recruitment team.
I write about the realities which may face law schools in the down turn...
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Parliament launches inquiry into policing of G20 protests
Independent: Demonstrators and senior officers face MPs' questions
Herbert Smith in talks to cut 84 jobs
Times: Herbert Smith, the law firm, said today it would cut up to 84 jobs as even the City's oldest and most prestigious legal advisers continue to struggle because of the economic downturn.
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The anti-terror law used on litterbugs
BBC News: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is to clamp down on local councils who use anti-terror laws to catch litterbugs and other minor offenders. |
It is an extraordinary state of affairs when local authorities feel they can use Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), designed to combat teroor, for snopping on local people. Examples of RIPA use by councils cited by the BBC include: snopping on litterbugs, Poole Borough Council who suspected a couple of lying about their home address in order to get their daughter into an over-subscribed local school and councils monitoring their own employees. What sort of people feel they can use power in this way? Why do we put up with this nonsense. If wrong doing occurs, surely existing police powers are sufficient? At least the beleaguered home secretary, in what may well be her final weeks of power can do something useful by curbing the excesses of local councillors? The BBC repoprts that anational survey found councils used Ripa powers more than 10,000 times
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And you just HAVE to see this from The White Rabbit - a classic
The White Rabbit is on good form... with 'Sorry to drag Law into this'.
" Miss Roxborough, I will address you if I may, as during the course of this trial you are the only one of the 4 solicitors representing these defendants that I have had no cause to criticise. What I have to say therefore does not arise from your conduct of the case. Conspiracy to Defraud is on any view a most serious allegation and on conviction, on the facts of this case, merits a substantial term of imprisonment. "... You really should take a bit of time to read this... |
21st April 2009
Secret police intelligence was given to E.ON before planned demo
• Secret police intelligence passed to firm
• Emails show civil servants passed data on protesters to security officials at E.ON
Government officials handed confidential police intelligence about environmental activists to the energy giant E.ON before a planned peaceful demonstration, according to private emails seen by the Guardian.
Alistair Darling's Budget to demand £15bn cut in public spending
Times: Alistair Darling will demand £15 billion in Whitehall efficiency cuts this week after repeated warnings that public sector spending is out of control. The Chancellor, who cut the rate of growth in annual spending to 1.2 per cent last November, will reduce it further in the Budget on Wednesday, with massive implications for services in the years after 2011.
More Law news
Read the lead law news stories for today 20th April...
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Well... the farce continues
...with the revelation in The Times on Saturday …. that the Police used the key words “Shami” and “Chakrabarti” to search Damian Green's emails, even though she was nothing to do with the Police inquiry.
Charon QC covers this in his weekly "Postcard" - this week From Vauxhall Cross: On Her Majesty's Secret service.
As denials go… Ed Balls with his ‘completely fabricated and malevolent nonsense' isn't in quite the same league as Mayor Boris who, when accused of some extra-curricular activity some years ago, said… “I have not had an affair with Petronella. It is complete balderdash. It is an inverted pyramid of piffle. It is all completely untrue and ludicrous conjecture. I am amazed people can write this drivel.” For more about Guido and the email smears..... click here
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20th April 2009
Times: Jacqui Smith faced renewed pressure last night after the secrets case against Damian Green was thrown out and the leaks with which he was involved were deemed not to have involved national security. |
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Quite apart from the furore over her expenses, the Home Secretary has demonstrated that she is not a safe pair of hands with this latest episode over the arrest of Damien Green MP, who was told by police at the time of his arrest that he could be facing life imprisonment if convicted. Mr Green won't be convicted, nor will the Home Office whistleblower because DPP, Keir Starmer, has refused to prosecute and said 'his decision was based on the fact that the leaked documents "were not in many respects highly confidential".' Guardian
While Ms Smith did not press for the arrest of Damien Green MP, she did "back a Cabinet Office decision to call in the police following 20 destabilising leaks from the Home Office in the past two years." It now appears that the leaks were not substantial state secrets, affect national security or put lives at risk as was being 'suggested' at the time of Green's arrest.
Starmer, not surprisingly, covers his position by saying - as reported in The Guardian - "the unauthorised leaking of restricted and or confidential information is not beyond the reach of the criminal law and can amount to an offence of misconduct in public office".
David Davis MP, former shadow home secretary, commented: "...the police were increasingly trying to use "misconduct in public office" to target officials who leak, undermining a key reform to the Official Secrets Act introduced to allow the disclosure of information. Green said the episode "whipped away the veil over this government and the way it exercises power". He said: "They make serious mistakes on immigration policy and rather than correcting [them] they try to cover them up and when the cover up is exposed they lash out and, in this case ... they exaggerated the security implications."
Carl Gardner, a former senior government lawyer and author of the Head of Legal Blog has written three good posts on this issue, the most recent, this morning: Damien Green - Jacqui on the rack
Gardner writes: "The way I'd put it is this: Jacqui Smith is under suspicion of having used the police as a political tool; of having allowed her own anger and frustration at the embarrassment the leaks caused her to cloud her judgment, so that she authorised the involvement of police for a wholly wrong purpose - to stop that embarrassment. I can't imagine a more serious charge against a Home Secretary. I don't like suggestions we live in a "police state": I think that kind of claim is always over the top . But vigilance must be eternal, and, if it means anything, it means making sure ministers do not use the police for their own political interests.
So Jacqui Smith is now on the rack. The onus is on her to acquit herself of these suspicions - which I don't think it will be easy for her to do." Carl Gardner then says that she needs to answer a number of questions and suggest the questions she needs to answer. Read Carl's piece for further information...
For my part, if she is not able to allay suspicion that she may have misused her office - then quite apart from the expenses furore, she should resign. She may not have to worry about taking the honourable way - there are rumours that she will be part of a Brown re-shuffle fairly soon anyway.
16th April 2009
Obvious and Tangible Cheating...
The Oxbridge Training Contracts saga continues with Oxbridge Training Contracts demanding that Simon Myerson QC pay attention to their demands... I quote from Mr Foster (representing OTC) ..."The following comments refer to the blog ‘Integrity and a Suitable Place for It' posted on your website on March 31st, 2009.The blog is both highly deceptive and defamatory and we demand its immediate removal, the deletion of associated comments and that you print a retraction making very clear the deceptive nature of the comments printed there hitherto." (See: Integrity - The Man speaks)
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Myerson, clearly unruffled by Mr Foster's demands refused to comply and responded: Integrity - the deadline passes and Moving on.
In his his latest "Moving on" blog post, Simon Myerson makes a number of particularly important points in relation to cheating - first, in relation to paying organisations like OTC to write puillage application forms for you and, secondly, in relation to the even more serious issue (in my view) of paying porganisations to provide answers to tailored essay questions. |
The fiction, of course, is that OTC and similar organisations (which they make clear in their terms and conditions) are simply providing students with these answers for their private research. They go further and say that it is a breach of their terms and conditions for students to use these answers for any other purpose than private research and include submission of such answers as their own work for university or law school course work.
Given that these tailored, bespoke, answers cost £200 or even more per answer depending on whether the answer is 2.1 or First class stabndard, or delivered seven days or seven hours later, it does not take a genius to work out that students are (a) using these bespoke answers and passing them off as their own work or (b) may be tempted to use the material as a substitute for their own research, or (c) are using the work as research and then 'modelling' their own answers on the answers provided. In all three cases the student is cheating. there is really no other term for it. Many, if not most institutions make it clear to students that they may not have any third party assistance with assessed coursework.
Myerson, rightly, makes this observation: " I extend this to the writing of essays - whether by way of ‘model' answer or otherwise. The test is simple: if the teaching isn't good enough at your institution then you should be able to recover the cost of your payment to OTC by way of legal action for breach of contract. If you wouldn't sue then you shouldn't use what you've bought. Try working harder."
Simon Myerson QC is a member of The Bar Council and is actively involved in the matter of Bar education. His blog posts on this issue are worth reading - as are the comments written by prospective barristers. Myerson's Pupillage and How to Get It blog is a first class resource for any prospective barrister. I have no hesitation in recommending it.
[I gave Mr Foster the opportunity to talk about Oxbridge Training Contracts in a podcast. If you wish to listen to it - click here]
9th April 2009
Have the Woolf reforms worked?
The changes made ten years ago have been a disaster for the civil justice system and need a radical rethink
In an excellent article in the Timnes, Lawrence West QC writes: "Access to justice is central to the democratic process — and procedural rules are the gateway to that justice. We have now had ten years of the Woolf reforms and experience proves that the reforms — known as the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) — have been a disaster for the civil justice system. If the ordinary member of the public is unable readily to gain access to that system, his rights are illusory. To judge by the criteria of access to justice, the CPR have been an abject failure. The evidence is compelling...
More...
G20 assault: how Metropolitan police tried to manage a death
• No mention of riot squad attack in initial account
• Video forces watchdog to consider inquiry demand
Guardian
"They (IPCC) have caught a real cold on this," said a senior source. "They were very slow, they clearly didn't think anything was wrong and they didn't look for it. Sometimes they just don't seem to be very independent." A former IPCC insider went further, blaming a "cosy" relationship with the police for the commission's failure to act quickly. "The problem with the IPCC is that it is too late to start inquiries and they go on for too long," said John Crawley, a commissioner for four years."
Police chief quits over blunder
Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer has resigned after his security blunder forced an anti-terror operation to be brought forward. Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick quit after he inadvertently revealed secret papers to photographers when arriving for a briefing at No 10. Mayor of London Boris Johnson said it was "with great sadness" that he had accepted his resignation.
BBC News 8th April 2009
POLICE: What are you going to do to explain this one away? We asked him to move?
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The Guardian has a particlarly disturbing film of Ian Tomlinson being pushed over by a police officer. Tomlinson had his hands in his pockets, with his back to police and was walking away from them. He was pushed by an officer, and fell over with his hands still in his pockets. Ian Tomlinson died later.
There were no edits in this film as far as I could see, no immediate threat to Police from Tomlinson - yet he was pushed from behind by a policeman in riot gear. |
Is this policing we should accept? Is this an example of Police showing restraint, good discipline and bravery? What excuse can the police come up with to excuse this excessive use of force? A man died soon after this action. There is a possible causal link - such is not beyond the bounds of possibility and may yet be confirmed by experts.
Make your own mind up when you see the film footage.
Policing at G20
Last week I put up a piece of video footage showing Police controlling protesters at G20. I asked a simple question - Is this the type of Policing we want in our country? The footage had been edited and I made my viewpoint clear that I have no sympathy for protesters who use violence, but by the same token I have no patience with Police who exceed their powers and use excessive force. The debate shows that reason is alive and well and that many viewpoints arise out of the video viewed by those who commented.
The original video sparking off this discussion may be viewed here - and the comments are worth reading
The Magistrate's blog - a well known and well regarded blog attracts a great deal of intelligent comment for many of his posts - and the comments on The Magistrate's blog here (Part 1) and here (Part 2) are well worth reading.
We are watching you... now
OUT-LAW: Internet service providers will have to store details of web and email traffic and details of internet phone calls for 12 months Monday 6th April as expanded European legislation comes into effect.
Libertarian Party launch their 'Live by the database, die by the database'
campaign
Ian Parker-Jospeh, leader of The Libertarian Party UK, has come up with an idea to make the government think again about this snooping law... Read
Legalisation of drugs could save UK £14bn, says study
Guardian: The regulated legalisation of drugs would have major benefits for taxpayers, victims of crime, local communities and the criminal justice system, according to the first comprehensive comparison between the cost-effectiveness of legalisation and prohibition. The authors of the report, which is due to be published today, suggest that a legalised, regulated market could save the country around £14bn.
Capitalists@Work: Any more legs to this market rally?
The FTSE ended up down today after a month of spectacular gains, it had the odd bad day last week too. The US markets were the same , as bank concerns reared up again. Some of the UK bank stocks have shot to the stars the past two weeks. How long can this last?
6th April 2009
Darling's Budget set to reveal disastrous growth forecast for UK economy
Independent: The British economy will contract by about 3 per cent this year, the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is expected to forecast in his Budget on 22 April. The Treasury prediction will mark an embarrassing retreat for Mr Darling, who was accused of being over-optimistic last November when he said gross domestic product would decline by between 1.75 and 2.25 per cent this year.
The 52 minutes of Obama magic that changed the nuclear rules
Guardian: Two presidential speeches in two days signal end of cold war strategic thinking
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Well… what a week. I got up shortly before 5.00 am this morning. There were no gulls or cormorants. It was too early for them to be about. The G20 did not appear to have taken place for The News of The World - but I did discover that Jade Goody was given a Princess Di style send off, that an ‘Apprentice' hunk enjoyed sex up a tree, that Prince Harry partied with a Dancing on Ice star and that ‘Gordon Ramsay went down the vindaloo'. More... |
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Time for the medicine?
With the economy predicted to contract by 3% (Rather than the more optimistic figure of 1.75-2.25 projected by The Chancellor) and a public sector borrowing requirement that is almost certain to exceed the £118 billion projected, it is inevtiable that the Chancellor will have to raise taxes to balance the books. It was suggested at the weekend in America by Cramer on the Mad Money programme that the Depression has ended and the bull run is about to begin. Nationwide reports a 0.9% increase in hous eprices last month, the banks say they are now in a position to increase lending and if business starts to enjoy a period of resurgence, tax revenues will go up and the PBR may go down(?) We shall see as the days unfold.
Oxbridge Training Contracts digging a bigger hole?
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Recently I did a podcast with John Foster of Oxbridge Training Contracts, the organisation behind the tailored pupillage, OLPAS form and essay writing service. The Bar Council subsequently put a warning on the OLPAS website advising students not to use this service. BPP Law School has also warned students not to use the service and other law schools may follow. |
It appears, now, that Mr Foster is requiring Simon Myerson QC - by noon today - to remove a picture of a cafe on the ground floor the building OTC uses in London on grounds that it is a deception and a defamation. Mr Myerson has given his reasons for not complying with OTC's demands on his Pupillage and how to get it blog under the heading "Integrity - The Man speaks".
3rd April 2009
$1,000,000,000
G20: Gordon Brown brokers massive financial aid deal for global economy
• G20 leaders agree $1.1 trillion injection to aid global recovery
• New rules for banking and clampdown on tax havens
• Markets rise sharply as Barack Obama hails 'historic' deal
Guardian |
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So... what is the mood following G20?
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The stock markets, for the moment, have digested the news positively. Nationwide announced that house prices rose last month, but one swallow does not a summer make and one wonders, given that Halifax reported a green shoot but two months ago, whether there is an element of wish fulfilment here and over generous interpretation of data. Robert Peston in his BBC blog is taking the line that G20 is historic, that banking is to be made boring and the increased regulation demanded by the French and Germans is a victory for them - a move away from the free market concepts of the 'anglo-saxons'. |
I prefer the rather more sardonic view of the team at Capitalists@Work: On tax havens, they take the stance "Tax havens did not cause this recession and persecuting them is not going to cure it either. This is a political grab at trying to secure more tax base. it will fail and is the wrong move in any event." Hedge funds have come in for a great deal of criticism, aliong with the fiasco earlier in the year when the ban on short selling of banking stocks came in only to be repealed recently. Capitalists@Work write "Hedge Funds - Ooh, the bad guys. You know, the ones who said all the banks were broke and full of toxic assets and were proved right. hedge funds account for a small fraction of international financial flows, why all the attention? Again, they did not make the banks invest in sub-prime toxic assets and derivatives." More...
Will G20 solve the problems at a stroke? Of course not, but sentiment is clearly positive for the moment and there is an increasing belief that the bad news has mostly been dug out in terms of toxic assets et al and factored into markets and economic and fiscal policy. We shall see. Will Britain be first in the queue to take advantage of the easing of stigma in going to the IMF? Lord Mandelson says that we will not be first in the queue and Brown has ruled it out - for the present at least. Will this be enough to save Brown's bacon? I doubt it. The underlying problems remain in domestic terms and Brown's poll ratings, volatile in the past, may well stick at a very low rating. Will this be enough to propel David Cameron into Downing Street? I'm not so sure he can count the chickens just yet. There is always the possibility of a Labour government under another leader - malbeit, to some pundits, a very remote possiobility. We have yet to see fully defined and credible policies from Tory HQ. Is there another Labour leader skulking in the shadows? Well there is almost certainly a cadre of Labour politicians skulking in the wings, but the question is... are any of them 'leaders'?
We continue to live in interesting times and a bit of prognostication on a Friday can always be revised on Monday. Journalists and pundits do this all the time.
2nd April 2009
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G20 - Day One: Charon reports...
Shortly after dawn yesterday I put out my cigarette, climbed aboard a Tiger Tank purchased on ebay but hours before and rumbled up the King's Road in Chelsea, heading for The City. Today my quest was different… to find President Sarkozy of France…
Read Charon Reports... |
And some fools did march on fools day
It started well with protesters arriving, some on foot, a few in a Saracen armoured car (only to be stopped by the Police); others on bicyles. The TV reporters were there prattling on with little to report other than all seemed peaceful, almost carnival like... but then it kicked off when a protester goaded on by his own idocy smashed a window at the RBS headquarters. |
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Finding no bankers 'to lynch' a small group of protesters stormed in through the broken windows and started to smash the place up. The Police went in and things turned ugly. One man collapsed and died during the day.
What did the violence achieve? Absolutely nothing in terms of changing things - save that public opinion tends to turn away from protesters who use violence instead of humour and those who started or contributed to the violence will, no doubt, find themseleves facing a custodial sentence which benefits absolutely no-one. One man, when asked why he was at the protest, told a reporter that he was was there for the violence. Pathetic. Moronic. Violence always devalues protest. Music, humour and reasoned debate is always far more effective. Gandhi knew that and used these techniques to great effect 60 years ago.
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Saturday, security, saddoes and hyperventilating journos…
Charon looks at the Police investigating MI5 case and the upcoming G20 talks and the protesters who may be arriving in a tank
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1st April 2009
A march of all the fools... or a serious day of serious protest?
The hyperventilators and autocuties in BBC and Sky television studios are ready. Journalists from the serious press are ready. The bloggers are ready. Ladies and gentlemen...of the press and media... start your engines for All Fools Day promises to bring all the fools to London (some are even coming out of retirement from the days of the Poll Tax riots in the nineties) to protest while world leaders are wafted about London in armoured cars with police escorts.
The Police are "up for it and up to it". Guido Fawkes will be there and exhorts "Wear your pinstripes with pride (today)" |
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Climate change is, possibly important and may become even more so if it is actually proven that mankind is messing the planet up and climatic anomalies are not simply climate anomalies. Leaving that to one side for the present, the world leaders are gathering in London to discuss the most severe financial crisis since the great depression and certainly since World War II. This is perhaps, for the immediate future, more important than almost anything else on the agenda so protests about a myriad of other matters, some entirely unimportant, are at best a distraction. At worst, if serious violence follows and anti-capitalists and assorted morons, hooligans and people whose eyes are too close together start fighting with Police for their own amusement and gratification, people will get hurt and important protest will be devalued. The day has yet to begin, so we shall see what happens.
Along with others, I shall be watching with interest. Enjoy your day and whatever it brings you...
30th March 2009
Blawg Review #205
The English composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was hugely prolific, but he is unquestionably best known for his orchestral suite, The Planets . Composed between 1914 and 1916, the work was popular from the start, much to the chagrin of Holst, who thought that it unfairly overshadowed other, more worthy compositions. More...
MPs Expenses and 'Porngate' with Jacqui Smith.
In the wake of the rather bizarre story about The Home Secretary's husband downloading porn movies and then submitting the bills as expenses, together with their private subscription, Guido Fawkes suggests that MPS are becoming ever morer agitated about further revelations to add to their concerns that all will soon be made public when digitised versions of their receipts are released.
The Times reports this morning that the Tory's, while falling short of calling for Jacqui Smith's resignation are calling for the inquiry into her second home expense allowance to be speeded up.
Corporate law work ‘is the next regulatory hazard'
The Guardian: The next scandal of regulatory failure could occur in the legal sector, if tougher action is not taken to regulate the work of corporate law firms, a report has warned..Former senior civil servant Nick Smedley, who conducted a review for the Law Society, said the Solicitors' Regulation Authority risks repeating the recent mistakes of the financial sector because it is "unsuited" to the conditions of the corporate legal sector FSA hails significant victory as solicitor and father-in-law are guilty of insider dealing
The Times: " Nathan Willmott, a partner with BLP, the law firm, said that for the City to take notice of the FSA, the regulator would need to put people behind bars..... Christopher McQuoid, former general counsel of TTP Communications, a software business, and James Melbourne, his father-in-law, were each convicted at Southwark Crown Court of one count of insider dealing. They face up to seven years in jail and confiscation of their personal assets when they are sentenced on Monday."
FROM ROLLONFRIDAY.COM
Lovells does over future trainees...
"Lovells has become the only major firm to force students to defer their training contracts - and for a pitiful £2,500... "
Swiss bankers feel ‘stages of grief'
| Financial Times: Swiss banking secrecy might be on the wane but restaurant secrecy appears to be alive and kicking. An attempt to inquire about the mood of Geneva's private bankers this week at a restaurant close to their discreet headquarters on the Rue du Rhone was met by a firm “ pas de commentaire ” at the Relais de l'Entrecote restaurant. A banker rushing off outside was a little more helpful: “Things aren't very good. People here are very angry with how it is all being blamed on us.” |
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28th March 2009
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Rome fiddles while Nero burns?
The country is going through the deepest recession since the Second World War, the G20 countries are to meet shortly but it would appear that some people have other things on their minds.
Objection! Judges reject new robes
The Independent: High Court judiciary say Betty Jackson designs make them look like characters from 'Star Trek' |
The Queen also appears to have matters of State on her mind. Ian Parker-Joseph, leader of The Libertarian Party UK asks if The Queen is thinking of dissolving Parliament following recent trips to The Palace by The Governor of The Bank of England and The Chief of The Defence Staff. Are we to have a 'Very british Junta?" Charon QC considers the matter.
More fiddling while Rome burns occurred yesterday when a matter of national and pressing importance resulted in Parliament having to discuss this today - The Independent reports: "Royal succession rules may be reformed. Royal succession rules may be reformed. Buckingham Palace and PM in talks to give women equal rights to throne"
I cannot really understand why this matter, hardly one of the great issues of our day, has to be resolved now given that The Queen is likely to live for another 20 years and celebrate her 100th birthday and there is no immediate sign of the wayward Princes wishing to marry nice catholic girls.... or is there? The issue has been tabled by Lib-Dem MP Evan Harris, to end the "uniquely discriminatory" rules laid down by the 1701 Act of Settlement. Res ipsa loquitur.
Too young to retire at 70? We should work our judges until they are at least 75...
In 1916 the Earl of Halsbury heard a case on the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords at 92. The Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993 now provides that judges must retire at 70. The Times: is pre-occupied this morning with the thought that Supreme Court judges should work until they are 75.
26th March 2009
Roasted on a spit?
While Gordon Brown is roasted by Dan Hannan MEP on his visit to The European Parliament in one of the most articulate and powerful poltiical speeches I have ever listened to - excoriating - Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, has been unveiling tougher corruption laws. Hannan seems a bit bemused at the furore his speech has caused. Guido Fawkes takes up the story with...
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Jack Straw's contribution to our society yesterday appears to go to the very root of British parliamentary and government tradition. It appears that we may be corrupt, so it is time for some tougher anti-corruption law. The Times reports that "Offering bribes to foreign public officials will be made illegal under long-awaited reforms to the UK's bribery laws published today. At the same time, the new draft Bribery Bill will remove from MPs and peers their Parliamentary privilege against prosecution for bribery."
It is not, by any means, going Gordon Brown's way at the moment. Yesterday Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, enjoyed an unprecedented audience with The Queen, prompting political bloggers to ask if the Queen planned to invite a few Generals over to tea shortly and King then told Brown that he would be wise not to indulge in any more 'fiscal stimulus' packages as the cupboard was looking a little empty after the recent bailouts. The City is not impressed.
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God ain't going to help with credit-crunch or anything else at the moment...
The BBC solemnly reports: "God will not intervene to prevent humanity from wreaking disastrous damage to the environment, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned."
Perhaps we should all chuck a few chicken feathers about and do a rain dance to get out of the mess? |
25th March 2009
Charon Reports: Cheating or taking professional advice?
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There has been a fair bit of coverage in the blogosphere and the dead tree press about the services offered by Oxbridge Training Contracts ,
Legal Week reports: “A controversial company which provides model essays to university students has broadened its services to help prospective lawyers complete training contract and pupillage applications…… The move has provoked anger from some lawyers since the blog Android's Reminiscences brought it to the wider attention of the legal profession last week when Simon Myerson QC of St Paul's Chambers claimed in his blog, ‘Pupillage and How to Get it' , that it equated to “cheating”. |
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On Tuesday I talked to John Foster, spokesman for Oxbridge Training Contracts about the legality of his service, his view of the ethics and exactly what Oxbridge Training Contracts is actually offering to students who wish to use their services. We also talk about the provision of model answers, tailored to specific questions put by the student client, and the problems that could arise if a student submits these model answers as their own work for coursework assessment.
I am a firm believer in the old adage that there are two sides to every story. I asked John Foster some difficult and direct questions and told him in advance of the podcast about the warning placed on the Bar Council OLPAS site this afternoon. Listen to his answers, make your own mind up, and if you wish to comment - please do so in the comments section below.
The Bar Council warning on the Olpas site
Bar Council Warning The Bar Council is aware of companies operating via the internet who offer to write pupillage applications and provide other services to assist with applications and interviews. We strongly advise applicants that it is likely to be detrimental to their applications to use any service containing customised model entries or answers on application forms or for interview. We have warned chambers about their existence and to be alert to their use.
Listen to the Podcast: Charon Reports: Cheating or taking professional advice?
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