I find this piece (with respect) a little confusing. Mr Neale says that his view is “shaped” by his 30 years as a senior Civil Servant, but then explains that the comparison between Civil Servants and barristers is plainly misplaced (not least because the point of the Civil Service is to be apolitical). So why make it? Mr Neale should have started from the proposition that barristers - like everyone else - have free speech rights (and we don’t need @barstandards to bestow such rights). But he refers to freedom of expression under Article 10 only in the context of its restrictions. And note the weasel word “intrinsic” - which he never explains but leaves hanging as an implied but imprecise limitation on public statements … I agree that - sometimes - barristers should be “circumspect” about what they say in public. But that applies to regulators, too. And unless it’s going to be more muscular about protecting free speech, @barstandards might well reflect that - sometimes - saying nothing is the better option.

RT @TomTugendhat: As Security Minister I saw the advice on the Chagos Islands deal. This ‘explanation’ is nonsense.

If your answer to a legal problem is mad, bad or simply daft,* it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve reached the wrong answer - but it most probably does. *Also applies when the normally sober @thetimes says you’ve “taken leave of your senses”, your proposal is “insane” and your strategy is “madness”. #Chagos #timeforasecondopinion

Now seen also @modadGeoP who made the latter point before I (independently) did.

RT @KemiBadenoch: Without free speech we don’t get truth. So thrilled to see my nominees Nigel Biggar and Toby Young introduced in the L…

.@PresidentIRL is also a poet, so he knows what words mean. And so to describe the Holocaust - in a speech at the National Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration - as an “attempted” genocide (twice) is to say it wasn’t a genocide. You can’t commemorate and deny, simultaneously.

RT @HolocaustUK: Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, marking 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. We remember the 6 million Je…

@AdamWagner1 An excellent appointment - many congrats and very well-deserved.

Interesting thread, and an uplifting idea. ⬇️ But note that in the Masoretic text the word “and he [Esau] kissed him [Jacob]” has little dots placed above it - the way scribes indicated a possible problem in the text. Some have suggested that וישקיהו “and he kissed him” should read וישכיהו “and he bit him” - which sounds the same, but one root letter difference changes everything!

@paulpowlesland Thanks : neither point (as I think you know) follows from the Times leader, or from the points I’ve been making in this regard.

RT @jbqlaw: Congratulations to the @quinnemanuel London team, led by Ted Greeno with associates James Leadill and Sachintha Dias, and couns…

Etymologically, “facilitated” and “facile” share the same root.

“Asking the Attorney General if he would be able to advise on an issue that might impact a recent former client and as such possibly involve a conflict of interest … is not the same as asking if legal advice on a given issue has in fact been given or not.” Important - and timely - paper from @Policy_Exchange ⬇️

RT @Francis_Hoar: This is not only reasonable but contemplated by the H. Rts Act, where legsl’n interferes with Conv’n rights in the opinio…