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1st February 2025
When do constitutional problems become incapable of constitutional solutions?

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What is a “constitutional crisis”?
There has certainly been a great deal of constitutional drama in recent years – in the United Kingdom, the United States, and elsewhere.
But some of this drama somehow resolved itself.
In the United Kingdom, for example, the

25th January 2025

How the initial media explanations did not match the facts – and working out the explanation that did

On Wednesday 22 January the claim brought by Prince Harry and Lord Watson against News Group Newspapers was settled.
The scheduled long public trial of this claim, after many years of pre-trial hearings and

21st January 2025

Around Westminster, the most useful guides to the nature of modern politics may not be the journalists and commentators, still less the ‘think tanks’ with their portentous names and solemn but flimsy ‘reports’.
They are perhaps instead the con-artist conjurers on Westminster Bridge – whose activities are detailed in this fine piece.
For it

17th January 2025

Before we start, the “lettuce before action” (for “letter before action”) line has been taken from the estimable Paul Magrath, whose weekly legal email is a must-read.

I really wish I had thought of the line for last week’s post.
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The post last week provided a quick close reading of the gloriously bad libel

13th January 2025
Some things from last week you may have missed.

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The weekly constitutional
Last week I expected my blogging to centre around a post I was preparing for Prospect, where my regular contribution is to branded as ‘weekly constitutional’.
This pleasing badge implies a weekly meander – but it will be

9th January 2025

This post is about a “cease-and-desist” letter that has reportedly been sent on behalf of the former Prime Minister Elizabeth Truss to the current Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
For such a letter to be sent would be extraordinary.
And, as we will see, it is a glorious letter.
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The news report about the