David Burrows | Lightnews

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 2h

'The Epstein emails are a demonstration of how misogyny – there really should be a stronger word for it in this context – is a currency, lavishly spent to show how much power you have.' www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What links Jeffrey Epstein and Keir Starmer’s government? A thick seam of contempt | Nesrine Malik

We’re often told the PM is a ‘decent’ man. But in appointing Peter Mandelson he chose political convenience over doing right by trafficked women and girls, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

www.theguardian.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 3h

In Mandelson' world where so many people seem to be 'against' you www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Mandelson I knew had a fatal flaw: he was a machiavellian who always cast himself as a victim | Andy McSmith

The UK’s first ‘spin doctor’ was immensely valuable to those he served. But he always felt entitled to more, says political journalist Andy McSmith

www.theguardian.com

Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 4h

Not today's main point, but I do find it odd that ministers are signalling their support of Keir Starmer - pretty important as their silence is interpreted as a sign they might quit and force him to resign! - by... posting on X.

You know, the site condemned for being an AI porn hellscape last month

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 4h

We all live in Jeffrey Epstein's sick, sick world open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

We all live in Jeffrey Epstein's world

The most disturbing revelation so far

open.substack.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 5h

@alfdubs.bsky.social all good luck in your work for refugee and asylum seekers, especially of children. (If it is of interest, you worked with my father in the 1970s)

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 6h

open.substack.com/pub/nickcohe...

Keir Starmer’s electoral suicide – and how to fix it

Labour must abandon its “punch a hippy” strategy

open.substack.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 7h

Starmer will bring down the Labour party open.substack.com/pub/nickcohe...

Keir Starmer’s electoral suicide – and how to fix it

Labour must abandon its “punch a hippy” strategy

open.substack.com

Bremain in Spain @bremaininspain.com · 7h

Sir Sadiq Khan has stepped up his calls to reverse Brexit, describing it as his “ultimate goal” for the UK to join the European Union.
In an interview with The Observer, the Labour Mayor said he wanted Sir Keir Starmer to show more ambition on rebuilding links with the EU...

Sadiq Khan says his ‘ultimate goal’ is to reverse Brexit

Mayor of London urges PM to show more ambition in rebuilding links with EU

www.independent.co.uk

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 9h

emptycity.substack.com/p/the-consti... Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC): for members of parliament to insist that it is for a parliamentary committee, and not the cabinet, to decide on what constitutes prejudice to national security is an extraordinary development.

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 10h

JAC: another departure open.substack.com/pub/rozenber...; but how and who to 'choose' judges

JAC: another departure

This time, the acting chair steps down. But who needs judges?

open.substack.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 10h

www.theguardian.com/politics/202... Asked if Mahmood had “pulled up the drawbridge” on child refugees, Dubs replied: “It looks like it”. Dubs, 93, was transported to the UK through the Kindertransport train organised by the Berlin-based stockbroker Sir Nicholas Winton.

‘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’

www.theguardian.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 10h

www.theguardian.com/politics/202... Alf Dubs, a Labour party member for more than 50 years, accused Starmer’s government of using asylum like a “political football” while courting voters on the right of the Conservative party and of Reform.

‘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’

www.theguardian.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 3d

www.theguardian.com/politics/202... Starmer in deepening trouble over Mandelson with intelligence and security committee increasingly involved

No 10 defies calls to sack Morgan McSweeney over Mandelson appointment

Amid warnings McSweeney’s survival would leave his position ‘untenable’, PM apologises to Epstein’s victims for appointing Mandelson as US ambassador

www.theguardian.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 4d

www.theguardian.com/media/2026/f... Elon Musk calls Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez a ‘tyrant’ over plan to ban under-16s from social media and curb hateful content
Pedro Sánchez says urgent action needed to protect children from ‘digital wild west’, drawing anger from owner of X

Elon Musk calls Spanish PM a ‘tyrant’ over plan to ban under-16s from social media and curb hateful content

Pedro Sánchez says urgent action needed to protect children from ‘digital wild west’, drawing anger from owner of X

www.theguardian.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 4d

www.theguardian.com/politics/202... Keir Starmer, the intelligence services and just about everyone else knew that Peter Mandelson was still mates with Jeffrey Epstein long after the financier had been convicted of child prostitution.

Labour forced into humble pie address over Mandelson disclosures | John Crace

Quiet air of desperation on government benches as Peter Mandelson’s links with Jeffrey Epstein consume the Commons

www.theguardian.com

John Crace @mrjohncrace.bsky.social · 5d

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Labour forced into humble pie address over Mandelson disclosures | John Crace

Quiet air of desperation on government benches as Peter Mandelson’s links with Jeffrey Epstein consume the Commons

www.theguardian.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 5d

Efficiency is not enough open.substack.com/pub/rozenber... wherever are delays in our criminal justice system heading?

Efficiency is not enough

Asked to defer jury reforms, Lammy says ‘we have to do all of it’

open.substack.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 10d

Judicial pragmatism open.substack.com/pub/rozenber... The role of Art 6 (privacy and family rights) to adjudication by European Court of Human Rights

Judicial pragmatism

We hear what you say but don’t tell us what to do, judges tell states

open.substack.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 11d

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... Treating children like small but valuable and responsible members of society helps them evolve into polite and respectful adults – how can they learn what society expects of them if they are excluded from public spaces as kids? It’s hard to argue with that logic.

Child-free spaces on trains? This isn’t the family-friendly France I know | Helen Massy-Beresford

Manners and respect are the norm for kids here. Treating them like a nuisance won’t do anything to help France’s declining birthrate, says Helen Massy-Beresford, a British journalist who lives in Pari...

www.theguardian.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 11d

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... Trump's lies follow him

The Minneapolis revolt tells us this: even in Trump’s America, the people have power too | Aditya Chakrabortty

After months of community resistance, the president backed down. Leadership from below succeeded when politics as usual failed, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

www.theguardian.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 13d

US people talk about 'real estate' when they mean land. I tried to explain to a US friend of mine that 'real' means 'royal' in a property context from when William I declared all England to be his. 'Real estate' applied to US property law was an error. The point was not understood.

Jacob Gifford Head @giffordhead.co.uk · 13d

I know I sound like a crank about this but the remaining feudal parts of our land law are not leaseholds but things like Bona Vacantia and Escheat. Leasehold reform is welcome & necessary. But we also ought to get rid of the actually feudal parts, too...

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 13d

Ground rent cap is good news (though peppercorn would be better straight away). Also welcome is promised abolition of new leasehold properties. Better still would be the outright abolition of leasehold altogether, a feudal anachronism virtually unique to England and Wales.

Jacob Gifford Head @giffordhead.co.uk · 13d

I know I sound like a crank about this but the remaining feudal parts of our land law are not leaseholds but things like Bona Vacantia and Escheat. Leasehold reform is welcome & necessary. But we also ought to get rid of the actually feudal parts, too...

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 13d

Ground rent cap is good news (though peppercorn would be better straight away). Also welcome is promised abolition of new leasehold properties. Better still would be the outright abolition of leasehold altogether, a feudal anachronism virtually unique to England and Wales.

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 13d

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... How to get rid of Trump and why the need to do so....

The global rule of law is not collapsing – Trump is the lone problem and he can be defeated | Simon Tisdall

The president’s approval ratings are plummeting and most Americans see him as an aberration. It is now up to them to curtail his despotic reign, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall

www.theguardian.com

David Burrows @dbfamilylaw.bsky.social · 18d

We have similar, but no rat or squirrel; lots - lots - of coal and blue tits; and a few chaffinch, gold finches and nuthatches and

Chris Dale @chrisdaleoxford.bsky.social · 18d

New bird feeders and food. This morning's visitors:

4 great tits
2 doves
starlings and sparrows too numerous to count
robin
blackbird
dunnock

But also:

Squirrel
Large brown rat

Chris Dale @chrisdaleoxford.bsky.social · 18d

New bird feeders and food. This morning's visitors:

4 great tits
2 doves
starlings and sparrows too numerous to count
robin
blackbird
dunnock

But also:

Squirrel
Large brown rat

Nick Lloyd @spaincivilwartours.bsky.social · 18d

Memorial in the Fossar de la Pedrera, the mass grave of the victims of the Franco regime in Barcelona, to the militants of the revolutionary Marxist party POUM who died fighting during the Spanish Civil War, comrades of George Orwell. Barely 20m away stands the memorial to the then Stalinist PSUC...