🔥

"Write with fire, edit with ice (and come up for air)": *A bit scared to share*. SO many thanks to Mark Flear & Marie Selwood at the Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly for inviting me to reflect on writing. It was unsettling and exposing. But also liberating... 1/5
nilq.qub.ac.uk/index.php/ni...

And as always, thanks to @awelsh.bsky.social for her kind and astute feedback and suggestions!
nilq.qub.ac.uk/index.php/ni...
5/5

I wanted to be above all honest (which is why you won’t find a helpful writing routine detailed within). Give it a read - it is *open access*, and please let me know if any of it resonates. But if you think it makes me a ‘one eyed witch’ (explanation in the text), maybe keep that to yourself... 4/5

railing against structural disadvantage and the ways that myths of neutrality and objectivity entrench hierarchies and marginalisation; all while reflecting on the quiet, transcendent magic of writing, and chucking in quotes from Dr Who alongside Descartes... 3/5

Channelling Bob Ross and my inner tortoise; touching on my peeves about genAI, being a Woman Taking Up Public Space, and the academic publishing racket; noting the rude inroads that treating headlice makes into my available time... 2/5

"Write with fire, edit with ice (and come up for air)": *A bit scared to share*. SO many thanks to Mark Flear & Marie Selwood at the Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly for inviting me to reflect on writing. It was unsettling and exposing. But also liberating... 1/5
nilq.qub.ac.uk/index.php/ni...

The BBC undercover investigation into false immigration claims is deeply irresponsible journalism. It does not highlight that exploitation by unregulated advisors occurs because legal aid was cut and the system is insane to navigate.

A perfect crow

Everyone in Obama’s ‘controversial’ tan-coloured suit or go home.

Mine's arrived! Reading it now in between less fun tasks. Excellent stuff. Huge congrats, @msumption.bsky.social

What Is Immigration Policy For? (What Is It For?) Buy What Is Immigration Policy For? (What Is It For?) by Madeleine Sumption (ISBN: 9781529238587) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

Published today! My take on why it’s so difficult for governments to make immigration policies that people trust

What Is Immigration Policy For?

amzn.eu/d/03bM5fDM

💯 this! Have literally just been writing smthg about the myths of neutrality and objectivity as tools of suppression

Just had a conversation with a (really lovely and excellent) senior medical consultant which included him asking incredulously ‘it’s possible to do research in law?!’

I feel we as a discipline/sector have a ways to go on public understanding of what the heck we do.

Lady Hale answering a question, seated in an armchair at the front of a large, filled lecture theatre at York Law School (audience out of sight apart from the tops of a few heads), with an excitable Charlotte O'Brien trying keep herself composed - a telltale hand gripping her chair a bit too tightly.

Lady Hale appreciation post! Some UKSC judges might just retire to a life of lucrative commercial arbitration - but not her. She's committed to public service - educating students and the public about the law and human rights. Was terrifying but amazing to interview this ICON at York Law School.

Similarly: "half a teaspoon of mixed spice" = A LADLE of the stuff. It's baking, not homeopathy.

UK ban on Palestine Action unlawful, high court judges rule Protest group’s co-founder wins legal challenge against decision to proscribe it under anti-terrorism laws

Wow!

Palestine Action win judicial review - Guardian report.

This is a *big* legal win.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

‘Pulling up the drawbridge’: Alf Dubs criticises Shabana Mahmood’s plans for child refugees Exclusive: Labour peer, who came to UK as a refugee, says some ministers try to show they won’t ‘just do things because of their background’

Children need their families. Refugee children are no different.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Love that this conjures up an image of a group of special agents, deciding ‘It’s come to this. It’s time to activate Prue Leith’.

The more racist and xenophobic our political sphere gets, the more important this issue becomes: the residence status of our EU family members, neighbours, colleagues & friends is not safe, but could be so much better protected with a small legislative tweak. eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/23...

Cover sheet of UK Parliamentary Bill 359 59/1 Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill

ICYMI, the UK government has put forward legislation to end the cruel two-child limit social security policy.

It is a short bill that simply proposes deleting two lines of earlier legislation applying the limit.

Finally debated yesterday. bills.parliament.uk/bills/4059

Cover page of: Aligning Policy and Reality: how to achieve the aims of sickness and disability benefits reform, with logos of Citizens Advice York, York Carers Centre, York Disability Rights Forum, York Foodbank, Healthwatch York York Human Rights City Network, Older Citizens Advocacy York, and the University of York

Guess what the evidence shows? Disabled people pushed into deeper poverty are pushed *further from, not into, the workplace*.

NEW REPORT, PACKED WITH EVIDENCE from community organisations.

www.citizensadviceyork.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Please read, (link below) and please circulate – and if you agree with the proposals, please help us to put these in front of those making these decisions.

www.citizensadviceyork.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Such a limit would strip away one of the remaining ‘social security’ elements of the system; we have had indefinite entitlement to income replacement for people too ill or disabled to work since before the First World War!

One recommendation is to reject the proposed time limit for contribution-based benefits for those who cannot work due to a health condition or disability.

which could help make the expressed intentions of the Green Paper (greater inclusion, greater economic independence, helping people to live in dignity) a reality, rather than a misaligned pretext for cutting social security.

and Kate Pickett on this important report: ‘Aligning Policy and Reality: how to achieve the aims of sickness and disability benefits reform’. The report includes evidence from real cases, detailed and careful calculations, and a set of specific recommendations,

*Working together for public good**: I’m so pleased to have contributed to the work of @citizensadviceyork.bsky.social alongside @yorkcarerscentre.bsky.social, York Disability Forum, Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY), @yorkfoodbank.bsky.social, York Human Rights City; @healthwatchyork.bsky.social

The proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper would accelerate disability poverty. Benefits are not barriers to work. In many cases they are the opposite. Insufficient support is a barrier, as are work places and practices, and discrimination.

Cover page of: Aligning Policy and Reality: how to achieve the aims of sickness and disability benefits reform, with logos of Citizens Advice York, York Carers Centre, York Disability Rights Forum, York Foodbank, Healthwatch York York Human Rights City Network, Older Citizens Advocacy York, and the University of York

Guess what the evidence shows? Disabled people pushed into deeper poverty are pushed *further from, not into, the workplace*.

NEW REPORT, PACKED WITH EVIDENCE from community organisations.

www.citizensadviceyork.org.uk/wp-content/u...