Do you want the good news or the bad news? It is not always easy to decide! As is so often the case, there has been both good news and bad in the past few weeks, so let’s start with the bad news in the hope that we will all feel better once that is… Read More »
Authors often say they experience difficulty in deciding on a title for their scribblings. Naming a film, book or poem can pose problems, although sometimes the answer is obvious. Think about Jane Austen’s eponymous novel Emma! Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey are similar no brainers and even Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice… Read More »
How many is a billion? Everyone knows the answer. Or do they? Does it actually matter? The official answer is that what we in England used to know as a billion has been downgraded. Is this just another example of Governments massaging statistics? I suppose it matters if you are trying to make something look… Read More »
There is a view often expressed that the law is failing to keep up with developments in technology. You only have to read the papers (if anyone still does) or read what people are saying on a myriad of social networking sites of which Facebook and Twitter are the most often quoted. Occasionally the law… Read More »
I am now in a minority in my own country! Some people would say I have been heading that way for some time! However, it is now official. If you are a fan of Tom Cruise, or possibly Samantha Morton, you will remember the 2002 film, Minority Report, where, in the future, criminals are caught… Read More »
Two Red Indian braves are pictured standing on a rocky outcrop looking over a scrubby cactus strewn expanse of desert towards the horizon where four puffs of smoke rise steadily in procession towards the sky. One brave turns to the other and says: “It says that someone has hacked into my emails!” Matt’s cartoons for… Read More »
Lawyers are used to logical thinking and reasoning. After all, most of them will know the duck test: if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. Conclusions are reached by a process of inductive reasoning. Don’t go away! I promise this piece… Read More »
It was just a wooden chair! There was nothing remarkable about it until one realised that the padding at the sides consisted of cushions piled on top of one another and strapped together and that underneath was a shallow metal tray. Even that did not really capture the menace behind the image until one realised… Read More »
What is life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare? Most of us rarely have time to look at the great buildings which surround our places of work or rest. W. H. Davies thought that life was not worth having if you could not enjoy a good gawp in a… Read More »
I hope you have not been put off by the title above and that you will read a little further! There is only a little bit of history to come but last week we may have seen a significant event to rival the attempt by King Charles I to arrest 5 sitting MPs by storming into… Read More »