The Liberal Democrats have today called for better supervision of the use of surveillance powers: they think magistrates should have to approve any use of legal powers of surveillance. Fair enough. What I do have a problem with, though, is the suggestion often made in the debate around these powers that surveillance should not be used to tackle supposely "trivial" offending and anti-social behaviour. If like me you think laws on these matters should be respected and enforced, and you want to give councils the job of enforcing them - then councils should be allowed the tools to do so.

I was interviewed on the Damian Green affair for today’s 5 Live morning reports, which went out at the crack of dawn: you can listen here for the next week. The Damian Green item starts at […]

The Christmas rush has, I’m afraid, “got” to this blog somewhat – sorry. It’s not the greatest blogging period of the year, of course. But rest assured, normal service will be resumed as from 5 January at the latest.

Here’s the full text of Lord Phillips’s lecture last night.

Sorry you’ve heard so little of me recently: it’s been a busy week, what with lecturing, second marking, visiting philosophy-of-lawyers from Cambridge and other personal stuff. I’ll say a thing or two later today, though.

This is the headline on the local newspaper hoardings near my home today. Harlesden man sounds like something archaeological, doesn’t he? But he’s more Willesden junction than missing link in fact. Anyway, enough of this nonsense: this is the […]

Now I’m sniffling and snuffling my way to coherence, there seems an awful lawt to blawg about. So bear with me in the next few days, even if I seem unbearable.

It was due to a very busy period followed by a bloody, bloody cold keeping me off blogging for a while.

The good news is that normal blawging service will resume quite soon now.

I like having unmoderated comments on the blog – and I’ve no problem with people remaining anonymous. But I’ve just had to delete a comment which made a very serious allegation against a named person.

Obviously I can’t allow […]

My post yesterday, I now realise, was suffused with a heavy weariness. I do find Fayed and his litigious crusading pretty tiresome: though I suppose I have to forgive him the Neil Hamilton nonsense, since it was Hamilton who sued […]