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Colin Murray

@colinmurray.bsky.social

7.4K followers 1.1K following 1.3K posts

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 23d

A new Explainer out from @aoifemod.bsky.social and me detailing the UK's ECHR commitments under the 1998 Agreement in response to recent speculation. It is short, because there is very little to say - the UK's obligations are evident on the B/GFA's plain text:

caj.org.uk/wp-content/u...

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 11h

I chickened out of my long-time working title:

Trains and Borders and Orangemen, Oh My!

But the first sight of a new publication in the wild still feels nice. Thanks to @conormccormick.bsky.social, David Capper and Norma Dawson for assembling this collection:

www.cambridge.org/core/books/l...

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Reposted by Colin Murray

Emily Jones @emilyjones.bsky.social · 15h

Join us on the 22nd October 2025 from 1-2pm UK time for this talk by Professor Susan Marks (LSE) on: 'If the World Is a Family, What Kind of Family Is It?' This event will be held online and in person and all are welcome. To register, please go to: www.ncl.ac.uk/law/events/i...

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 18h

They do their job as journalists and source a broad range of opinion. Or they don't make quality assessments on research "detail" that they are not qualified to make.

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 19h

Totally.

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 20h

Great day for this post from @alangreene.bsky.social to come out because it explores exactly this phenomenon down to the specific example. The UK media either doesn't care about balance or finds it very difficult to assess claims for itself, so "both sides":

ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/10/09/a...

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 1d

A pure example of BBC balance. On the one side, on the other, all the way through. This leaves a really superficial account of what's at issue with leaving the ECHR and accepts, doe-eyed, that Policy Exchange had a "really detailed proposal" on the GFA, not a hot mess:

share.google/qGXg9rHZYfPL...

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 1d

Great to see that Beckett is still winning.

Lux "Nightmare" Alptraum @luxalptraum.com · 1d

TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it

One Star Review of Waiting for Godot on Broadway
I recently attended Waiting for Godot on Broadway and spent over $1,400 for two Row C seats (103 and 104). I'm a longtime admirer of Broadway productions and even hold a season pass for Shea's Performing Arts Theatre, so I came in with genuine enthusiasm and high expectations. Unfortunately, this show was unlike anything ! have ever experienced —and not in a good way.
What I encountered was not the artistry, music, or emotional storytelling I usually associate with Broadway, but instead what felt like an endless cycle of nonsensical conversation between characters who seemed trapped in their own madness. I tried-truly tried-to find meaning, symbolism, or even a thread of emotional resonance. I stayed through the first half hoping the second would offer clarity. But by intermission, it was clear: this was a waste of both time and money.
Keanu Reeves is an actor I respect greatly, but I cannot fathom why he would agree to participate in such a disjointed, inaccessible production. His talent was lost in a performance that defied reason rather than provoked insight.
To anyone considering attending: unless you are drawn to highly abstract, nearly incomprehensible theater, I strongly caution you against this show. For the average, educated, thoughtful theatergoer, it is far more frustrating than fulfilling. In my opinion, this was the single most disappointing Broadway experience I've ever had - an unfortunate waste of money and, more importantly, of time.

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 1d

The Windsor Framework dropped the number of sea border checks substantially, based on a system of labelling, EU access to UK customs data and sample checks. It was always likely to permit more leakage of non-compliant goods into the EU single market if the UK was slack:

www.ft.com/content/7238...

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Reposted by Colin Murray

Dónal Hassett @donalh.bsky.social · 1d

It was stupid when they said this about Jim O'Callaghan and it's stupid when they are saying it about Catherine Connolly. The cab rank rule among barristers means you have to take whatever the case is + the journalists acknowledge this but completely bury the lede www.independent.ie/irish-news/p...

Catherine Connolly says she did represent banks in courts but fails to clarify whether it included home repossession cases

O’Reilly’s bar in Salthill faces out towards the choppy waters of Galway Bay, but it was the scene of a stormy exchange that Catherine Connolly described as “a cowardly personal attack”.

www.independent.ie

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Reposted by Margaret Mitchell, Colin Murray, Martin Paul Eve , and 11 more Margaret Mitchell, Colin Murray, Martin Paul Eve, Robert Black, Robert C. Richards, David R. Miller, Robert Wolfe, Adrian Vickers, Michael D. McDonald, Ben Rosamond, Tom Stoppard, Anthony Burke, Daxton R. Stewart, Evan Roberts

Lux "Nightmare" Alptraum @luxalptraum.com · 1d

TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it

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Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Brendan Nyhan, Andrew Scott , and 10 more Anne Applebaum, Brendan Nyhan, Andrew Scott, Colin Murray, Jonathan Wolff, Andrew Curry, Tom Griffin, Victor Pickard, Henry Jones, Sam Kamin, Gerry Hassan, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."

- Jack Posobiec at Trump's roundtable on antifa

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 1d

It is an interesting case study in removing legal protections around the judiciary because they're not seen as being necessary when everyone in the major UK parties are believed to be "good chaps". And then finding out that everyone really isn't a good chap...

Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 1d

Not so long ago this dangerous "naming and shaming" of judges shtick would have been caught by the offence of scandalising the judiciary. If Robert Jenrick wants to bring back all the old arrangements around the judiciary, I wonder is he as keen on that one?

www.thetimes.com/article/1b67...

Robert Jenrick names judges he would sack for ‘pro-migrant bias’

The shadow justice secretary has accused ‘activists’ within the judiciary of having links to political causes that compromise their independence

www.thetimes.com

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 2d

100000 thousand places, without replacing funding (lol) would be a hammer blow to English universities (the only ones that will be directly subject to her policy given devolution). It is wantonly destabilising to even suggest it.

Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 2d

We'd like to ensure a much less well educated next generation in the UK is yet another bold Conservative pitch amongst a cornucopia of proposals this week which range from the deranged to the dangerous...

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 2d

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to announce plans to cut the number of UK university places by about 100,000 annually by reintroducing student number controls, reports Patrick Jack #edusky
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/badenochs-number-caps-plan-would-cut-100000-university-places

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Reposted by Steve Peers, Colin Murray, Susan J. Smith , and 3 more Steve Peers, Colin Murray, Susan J. Smith, Charles West, James Connelly, Alan McNally

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 2d

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 2d

We're across a v dangerous line in "acceptable constitutional thought" today, and the media really are struggling to convey how mad things just got.

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Reposted by Emily Jones

Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 2d

Some thoughts, with @emilyjones.bsky.social & Romain Chuffart, in Critical Legal Thinking, on the UK's recognition of Palestine and the implications it might have had, but conspicuously has not had, for UK Govt responses to the Samud flotilla's seizure:

criticallegalthinking.com/2025/10/07/t...

The UK’s recognition of the State of Palestine is meaningless without the proper recognition of international law on the aid flotillas

Israel has boarded the Global Sumud flotilla, representing a further escalation of their response to flotillas seeking to deliver aid to Gaza. The

criticallegalthinking.com

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Reposted by Patrick Dunleavy, Steve Peers, Colin Murray , and 5 more Patrick Dunleavy, Steve Peers, Colin Murray, Fergus McNeill, Lesley A. Hall, Maria Abreu, Vaughan S. Roberts, James Connelly

The Secret Barrister @barristersecret.bsky.social · 2d

This is a lie.

There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years.

But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks, now that's in my head.

Reposted by Alan Lester, Laurent Pech

Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 3d

More in the breathless, breaking stop-the-presses, and not at all confected story, that judges, before they were judges, were involved in practising law. Take 5 seconds to appreciate just how hard into "swivel-eyed loon" Robert Jenrick is being allowed to lean:

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

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Reposted by Colin Murray

Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 3d

My real concern is whether Amicus, the mascot of the Canadian Supreme Court, has also been compelled to change robes.

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Reposted by Colin Murray

Paolo Sandro @paolosandro.bsky.social · 3d

Lord Wolfson's legal advice to Kemi Badenoch on ECHR withdrawal has now been published. In this thread I'll highlight a few passages that stood out for me - not meant to be a full analysis (in [] are the paragraph numbers). /1

rozenberg.substack.com/p/how-uk-cou...

How UK could leave ECHR

Withdrawal would allow EU to end criminal law enforcement co-operation

rozenberg.substack.com

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Reposted by Steve Peers

Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 3d

Robert Buckland epitomises the branch of conservatism that pays attention to the Union (and the legal commitments underpinning it), values personal liberty and instinctively distrusts silver bullet solutions to multi-faceted issues. Feeling for him today:

conservativehome.com/2025/10/05/r...

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 3d

Sorry, the combined document is pretty much unreadable. I've reposted.

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 3d

These papers are held in File CJ 4/12832 in the UK National Archives, which holds many newly released files on the UK Govt's preparations for the HRA and how these were intertwined with the peace talks in NI. Huge thanks to
@garywenvhist.bsky.social for helping me with speedy access to this file!

Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 3d

Today will see a flurry of speculative claims about the GFA & ECHR. Most significantly that rights weren't important/were late additions/didn't mean the whole ECHR in NI law. I'm begging journalists to push back. Civil Servants were planning for Labour's Rights Agenda for NI from the 1997 election:

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 3d

*late additions. Oops.

Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 3d

These papers are held in File CJ 4/12832 in the UK National Archives. There are a host of newly released files on the UK Govt's preparations for the HRA and how these were intertwined with the peace talks in NI. Huge thanks to @garywenvhist.bsky.social for helping me with speedy access to this file!

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