The Guardian reports that plans to curtail the number of jury trials in England and Wales have been described as "unpopular, untested and poorly evidenced" by thousands of lawyers who have written to the prime minister. The paper says that the letter to Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, from 3,200 lawyers, including 300 senior barristers, comes as his government faces the prospect of one of its most serious backbench revolts since coming to power: Efforts by David Lammy, the justice secretary, to change the mind of one of the leading Labour figures opposed to the plans, the ...
Embed from Getty ImagesMost Europeans who visit the United States go to New York or California, which are liberal, cosmopolitan places very like Europe. But the rest of the country, as I was told when I visited New York myself, isn't like that. You can say that again. Here's Alexander Bevilacqua writing in the London Review of Books: In Williamstown, Kentucky, no small distance from the "mountains of Ararat", the biblical resting place of Noah's Ark, a 510-foot-long wooden structure rises from a ridge. The Ark Encounter - less than an hour's drive from Cincinnati International Airport and within a ...
"What is your favorite TV show that no one else has seen?" asked someone on Bluesky yesterday. I replied, as I generally do to such questions, with Gophers!' Reader's voice: Gophers!? Liberal England replies: Yes, Gophers! Wikipedia puts it very well: Gophers! is a Channel 4 children's programme about a family of American gophers who move into a new neighbourhood, called Sycamore Heights, living next door to a family of uptight but well-intentioned rabbits, The Burrows. There were many recurring jokes within this short-lived show such as Arthur Burrows' vegetables planning a rebellion to escape his garden, a mad scientist ...
"I'll call you once I get changed," I told my sister. "Got absolutely soaked." She said she was sorry I'd got cold and wet. "It was water, not bullets," I replied. She cried. That afternoon in Munich, I had joined over one million Iranians and their supporters worldwide to remember the tens of thousands massacred by the Islamic Republic on 8 and 9 January this year. Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi had called on all who stand with Iranians to come together on a Global Action Day for Iran on Valentine's Day, which also fell on the 40th day after the ...
The Independent reports on new forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility which show that up to a million more pensioners will be drawn into paying income tax as a direct consequence of frozen tax thresholds. The paper says that the Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) forecast, published for chancellor Rachel Reeves's spring statement on Tuesday, indicated that 600,000 more pensioners than previously estimated will face income tax by 2026-27. That figure is due to increase to 1 million by 2030-31: While the state pension is subject to income tax, individuals whose sole income derives from it have historically avoided ...