A member of the Church of England’s General Synod who campaigns against gender-based violence is calling for changes to the way the Church of England tackles safeguarding. Gavin Drake has tabled two Private Members Motions (PMMs) which may be selected for debate by the Synod if they attract the signatures of 100 other General Synod […]
Category: Law
Press Release: General Synod member calls for Archiepiscopal Visitation to investigate safeguarding in Southwell and Nottingham
– Call comes after High Court Judge asks the Archbishop of York to spell out “without delay” safeguarding lessons that the bishop of Southwell and Nottingham needs to learn. A recently elected member of the General Synod’s House of Laity, Gavin Drake, has called on the Archbishop of York, the Most Revd Stephen Cottrell, to […]
Why the Cliff Richard privacy judgment is not a threat to the freedom of the press
The head of news at the BBC, Fran Unsworth, has said that the judgment “creates a significant shift against press freedom.” No. It doesn’t.
We need to talk about Geoffrey Robinson’s Organ Donor (Deemed Consent) Bill
A new law won’t increase organ donation. Talking about it will.
It is time to end the secrecy and infallibility of the Parole Board
The Parole Board has come in for a lot of attention in the past few days, after its decision to release serial predatory rapist John Worboys was announced on Thursday afternoon. But despite this attention, its work is shrouded in secrecy. Unlike any other aspect of the criminal justice system, the Parole Board’s work is […]
Just how dangerous is “Black Cab Rapist” John Worboys?
The Parole Board have decided that John Worboys can be released from his indeterminate sentence. He was convicted at Croydon Crown Court on 13 March 2009 of one count of rape, five sexual assaults, one attempted assault and 12 drugging charges, committed between July 2007 and February 2008. The judge, Mr Justice Penry-Davey, handed down […]
Brexit, law and politics, and nonsense
Much has been said about yesterday’s High Court judgement about the mechanism that the government must use to trigger Article 50. Much of it is nonsense, both legally and politically. The saddest part of the judgment, for me, is paragraph 105. In it, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, says that counsel for […]
Game over for Julian Assange’s sexual offence charges? Perhaps not!
UPDATE (9 September 2015): the Crown Prosecution Service and the Ministry of Justice have been in contact with me to say that the provisions of Section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 only apply to crimes committed against people aged under 18. This means that the entire premise of this blog post is wrong. […]
Can we PLEASE have some honesty from our politicians?
One of the things that you become aware of as a writer on religion is how much religious illiteracy there is in the country. But over the past few months, as my writing has veered more towards politics rather than religion, I have noticed that there is a far greater political illiteracy – particularly so when […]
The legality of invoicing a child for not turning up to a birthday party
A Twitter conversation between a BBC and ITV hack over the threat of court action for non-payment of a birthday party no-show invoice caught my attention. BBC Newsnight’s Jess Brammar wrote “PM [that’s Radio Four’s PM programme, not the Prime Minister] have just trailed a BBC legal expert analysing the child’s party invoice. *burns everything*”. ITV’s Damon […]