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Colin Murray

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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
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

donalh.bsky.social
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: Colin Murray, Anne Applebaum, Brendan Nyhan , and 7 more

paleofuture.bsky.social
"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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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
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...
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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
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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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
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.
5

by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
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...
timeshighered.bsky.social
Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 1d
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: Colin Murray, Steve Peers, Susan J. Smith , and 3 more

timeshighered.bsky.social
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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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
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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by Colin Murray — Reposted by: Emily Jones

colinmurray.bsky.social
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: Colin Murray, Patrick Dunleavy, Steve Peers , and 5 more

barristersecret.bsky.social
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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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
Thanks, now that's in my head.
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by Colin Murray — Reposted by: Alan Lester, Laurent Pech

colinmurray.bsky.social
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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by Colin Murray

View post

Reposted by: Colin Murray

rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social
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

paolosandro.bsky.social
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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by Colin Murray — Reposted by: Steve Peers

colinmurray.bsky.social
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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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
Sorry, the combined document is pretty much unreadable. I've reposted.
1 1

by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
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!
7

by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
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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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
*late additions. Oops.
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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
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!
1 3 7

by Colin Murray — Reposted by: Tom Griffin, Simon Usherwood

colinmurray.bsky.social
Today will see a flurry of speculative claims about the GFA & ECHR. Most significantly that rights weren't important/were late editions/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:
3 23 52

by Aoife O’Donoghue — Reposted by: Colin Murray, Cathryn Costello

aoifemod.bsky.social
The Wolfson Report treats #NorthernIreland and the international legal commitments of the UK Government - which are very clearly spelled out in the #1998Agreement - as mere political agreements.
Once again it is a Treaty & requires #ECHR rights - not UK versions of them
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aoifemod.bsky.social
Aoife O'Donoghue @aoifemod.bsky.social · 2d
Ehm...

1) Because it is an integral part of the UK - not an overseas territority etcs., - & UK wide law applies to it

2) Direct Rule is always a possibility

3) Nice to the Conversative & Unionist Party looking for yet another sea border, as that is so popular.

See caj.org.uk/wp-content/u...
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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
It's more than that, it is a parsing of the fact that it is a breach of treaty commitments that causes these consequences. It's an extended effort to talk away anything that isn't domestic law as "not law".
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by Aoife O’Donoghue — Reposted by: Colin Murray

aoifemod.bsky.social
Ehm...

1) Because it is an integral part of the UK - not an overseas territority etcs., - & UK wide law applies to it

2) Direct Rule is always a possibility

3) Nice to the Conversative & Unionist Party looking for yet another sea border, as that is so popular.

See caj.org.uk/wp-content/u...
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by Colin Murray

colinmurray.bsky.social
Newcastle too!
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Reposted by: Colin Murray, Dave O’Brien, Patrick O’Brien , and 3 more

bymyong.bsky.social
I‘m giving a public talk at UCL on Thurs 16 Oct. The title is “Bureaucracy and distrust: the civil service in the constitution” looking at the civil service’s constitutional foundations, and how it might respond to a populist govt. @sirJJkc.bsky.social will chair!
www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/...
Hybrid | CLP - Bureaucracy and Distrust: The Civil Service in the Constitution
This lecture will be delivered by Dr Ben Yong, as part of the Current Legal Problems Lecture Series 2025-26
www.ucl.ac.uk
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by Jonathan Portes — Reposted by: Colin Murray, Mel Bartley, Michael Morris , and 1 more

jdportes.bsky.social
This detailed demolition of @gullyfoyleuk.bsky.social's "75 Brexit Benefits" by @alanbeattie.bsky.social deserves wider circulation.

Intellectual garbage disposal is a valuable public service!
alanbeattie.bsky.social
Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 3d
OK, let's take this seriously. I had an odd half an hour and via Apple Books had a quick look at the three claims I knew most about - two re the post-Brexit bilateral preferential trade agreements replicated from the EU versions and one about cheaper bananas. All are wrong or wildly implausible. 1/n
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Reposted by: Colin Murray, Jonathan Portes, Christian Odendahl , and 1 more

alanbeattie.bsky.social
OK, let's take this seriously. I had an odd half an hour and via Apple Books had a quick look at the three claims I knew most about - two re the post-Brexit bilateral preferential trade agreements replicated from the EU versions and one about cheaper bananas. All are wrong or wildly implausible. 1/n
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