Byzantine Easter week.

Nolíte expavéscere: Iesum quǽritis Nazarénum, crucifíxum: surréxit, non est hic. — A blessed and joyful Easter to all!

Pope seems to rebuke Trump in remarks about leaders with ‘hands full of blood’ Pontiff’s unusually pointed comments come after Pete Hegseth’s prayer for violence against enemies ‘who deserve no mercy’

“This is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war ... He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” Strong words from the Holy Father. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Joint Press Release - The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Custody of the Holy Land - Custodia di Terra Santa This morning, the Israeli Police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Head of the Catholic Church in

A totally unjust decision on the part of Israeli Police, stopping the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday. www.custodia.org/it/news/join...

I think Jeremy Bowen is right

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Little has done more to dehumanise daily life than the spread of self-checkout machines.

Thank God America gave us Leo as well as Trump. Truly, a Pope for our times.

Assisted dying bill will not now become law, say both sides The House of Lords are continuing to debate the proposals but there is not enough time to complete all the stages in the current parliamentary session.

Good. A dreadful bill full of holes that would have endangered disabled people and those vulnerable to coercion. Am so proud of every MP and peer who stood firm and continued to raise their concerns in the face of smears and intimidation.

The man who ended overreach | Yuan Yi Zhu | The Critic Magazine Lord Reed’s tenure as president of the Supreme Court has been admired by those who value the stability of the law.

Lord Reed will retire from the post of President of the Supreme Court. Here is my writeup of his career, for The Critic Magazine: thecritic.co.uk/the-man-who-...

Might be the greatest opening paragraph of anything ever.

If proscribing Palestine Action was unlawful, how can it still be a proscribed organisation? In the Ammori case, the High Court held that the Home Secretary’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 was unlawful. But a quashing order has not been issued and the …

@profmarkovic.bsky.social wrote a very good blog post on this a few weeks back: publiclawforeveryone.com/2026/02/17/i...

Head of Academic Skills at University of Cambridge Explore professional service vacancies, like the Head of Academic Skills role, on jobs.ac.uk. Apply today and learn more about the position.

Come and join us at @robinsoncollege.bsky.social! We’re looking to appoint someone to a new position of Head of Academic Skills. Further information here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQZ261/h...

So, about those Eid prayers in London...

"What's the highest thing in Trafalgar Square?"

"Nelson's column, innit?"

"And the highest thing on the column?"

"Nelson."

"And on Nelson?"

"His hat."

"And the highest thing on his hat?"

"That bit that sticks up."

1/8

Significant day for UK trade policy. With the announcement of the EU-Australia FTA the UK now only has an FTA where the EU doesn't with Malaysia and Brunei as part of CPTPP. The EU meanwhile has a deal with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay that the UK doesn't.

Corrupt to the core.

from Fraser Nelson:

Why axe so many juries? My plan would solve the courts crisis without harming justice | Alan Moses The backlog in England and Wales is serious but there are other ways to address it. There are many retired judges and calling them into action could be key, says former lord justice of appeal Alan Moses

Why axe so many juries? My plan would solve the courts crisis without harming justice | Alan Moses

Having now read the judgment, this is an imp decision, confirming the const status of Acts of the Senedd & their immunity from challenge on (common law) procedural grounds. A rare and welcome example in recent devo jurisprudence of reasoning from first principle.

www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...)

OSCOLA 5th edition is out www.law.ox.ac.uk/oscola

Changes spotted so far include:

Adding Medium before Neutral Citation

Not putting JSC (or SCJ) after UKSC judge’s names (CJ, MR, V-C, LJ, J, & DJ remain; ICC also there but no EJ)

The end of Ibid

More on web sources - and how to cite Gen AI

Just had this flagged with me. This is disgusting.

If Kemi Badenoch had one ounce of leadership in her, she would condemn this.

I don’t want any faux sadness from her or Nick Timothy when one of us is hurt or worse.

This is how low the Conservative Party have sunk.

British right must not allow prejudice to be masked as principle In history, curtailing religious freedom has only ever been the road to horror — the Tories can choose not to repeat it

Today's newsletter. Cheery topic!

*Nostra aetate!

I'm glad I belong to a Church that can see the good in Islam, and don't follow the hollow ethno-nationalist 'Christianity' of Kruger et al. Here's what Vatican II's Nostra aerate (1965) says about Islam.

He said the event, organised by the Ramadan Tent Project and attended by Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, was “an open, deliberate, wilful attempt, not at the private observance of a different religion, but the attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of life”.

This is Enoch Powell level fear mongering from Farage. Gross race baiting that's beyond acceptable from any mainstream politician. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I… what? News to the Jews. And Roman Catholics. And various flavours of the Wrong Sort of Protestant (and if we’re including Scotland in “this country”, pretty grudging about Anglicans at one point, too).

As a Catholic, cycling my kids to their local CofE primary school, past a load of neighbours our and about joyfully celebrating Eid, I’m so glad we don’t live in the sort of country the Shadow Justice Secretary and Leader of the Opposition now stand for.

Congratulations to @robinsoncollege.bsky.social Law students for participating in this year’s mooting competition. We had a brilliant final last night, with first-year Taylor Lovegrove taking the prize. Here are the finalists, with Taylor receiving the college mooting trophy from the Warden.

History Society lecture titled The Early History of the English Bar by Professor Sir John Baker KC LLD FBA. The background is a medieval manuscript-style illustration showing robed legal figures seated above and a group of people debating around a green table below, with scrolls and papers scattered.

📜 Today is the last chance to get your ticket for our fascinating talk: 'The Early History of the English Bar'

Join us on 30 March for our first History Society Lecture of the year as Professor Sir John Baker KC explores the rise of the Inns of Court.

🔓 Open to the public
🕛 Book: nrtm.pl/4aldFfn

*cries in Catholic*

Very glad that The Jewish News has published this. Good on them. (And shame on the MPs not willing to say the same).