James Chalmers
@jameschalmers.bsky.social
Regius Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow School of Law. Nothing should be inferred from the absence of unnecessary disclaimers on this profile.
Reposted by James Chalmers
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:21 AM
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Starmer: one alpaca
Carney: all ostriches
Macron, facing the prospect of yet another vote of no confidence in his PM, now commissioning a memo on surplus species.
Carney: all ostriches
Macron, facing the prospect of yet another vote of no confidence in his PM, now commissioning a memo on surplus species.
November 7, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Starmer: one alpaca
Carney: all ostriches
Macron, facing the prospect of yet another vote of no confidence in his PM, now commissioning a memo on surplus species.
Carney: all ostriches
Macron, facing the prospect of yet another vote of no confidence in his PM, now commissioning a memo on surplus species.
Reposted by James Chalmers
🎉 Thrilled that the first ever issue of the Scottish Journal of Open Research has published today, #DiamondOA of course!
This will be such a great venue to share good #OpenResearch practice.
Plus I had my first experience of editing a journal article!
👉https://doi.org/10.36399/f74t5k88
This will be such a great venue to share good #OpenResearch practice.
Plus I had my first experience of editing a journal article!
👉https://doi.org/10.36399/f74t5k88
Vol. 1 (2025)
| Scottish Journal of Open Research
doi.org
November 7, 2025 at 12:40 PM
🎉 Thrilled that the first ever issue of the Scottish Journal of Open Research has published today, #DiamondOA of course!
This will be such a great venue to share good #OpenResearch practice.
Plus I had my first experience of editing a journal article!
👉https://doi.org/10.36399/f74t5k88
This will be such a great venue to share good #OpenResearch practice.
Plus I had my first experience of editing a journal article!
👉https://doi.org/10.36399/f74t5k88
Had wondered *why* Starmer sacked Lucy Powell from the cabinet and starting to think this sort of helpful policy intervention, if it mirrors contributions to Cabinet discussions, might provide a clue.
November 7, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Had wondered *why* Starmer sacked Lucy Powell from the cabinet and starting to think this sort of helpful policy intervention, if it mirrors contributions to Cabinet discussions, might provide a clue.
Reposted by James Chalmers
21 years ago today I thought, huh, looks interesting, and created a Wikipedia account. Things sort of snowballed from there. It's been fun.
21 thoughts on Wikipedia, in no particular order: 🧵
21 thoughts on Wikipedia, in no particular order: 🧵
October 30, 2025 at 9:54 PM
21 years ago today I thought, huh, looks interesting, and created a Wikipedia account. Things sort of snowballed from there. It's been fun.
21 thoughts on Wikipedia, in no particular order: 🧵
21 thoughts on Wikipedia, in no particular order: 🧵
Pleased to see that a film I saw a test screening of earlier this year is confirmed for a cinema release, meaning I can see if they acted on my Important Audience Feedback (pointing out a typo 90 seconds into the closing credits).
November 6, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Pleased to see that a film I saw a test screening of earlier this year is confirmed for a cinema release, meaning I can see if they acted on my Important Audience Feedback (pointing out a typo 90 seconds into the closing credits).
I had been wondering whether accidental releases actually overall increase public confidence when the police quickly find the person concerned, giving you high-profile coverage of the system working. Did not actually contemplate that you might lose that benefit by someone handing themselves in.
🔺BREAKING: Prisoner mistakenly released from Wandsworth gives himself up
Billy Smith, 35, has handed himself in three days after being released in error
Billy Smith, 35, has handed himself in three days after being released in error
Prisoner mistakenly released from Wandsworth gives himself up
Prisoner mistakenly released from Wandsworth gives himself up
www.thetimes.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:44 AM
I had been wondering whether accidental releases actually overall increase public confidence when the police quickly find the person concerned, giving you high-profile coverage of the system working. Did not actually contemplate that you might lose that benefit by someone handing themselves in.
Voters: “we are really worried that housing has become unaffordable”
New York Post: “good news: one candidate can reduce the ferocious demand pushing NYC rents ever higher”
New York Post: “good news: one candidate can reduce the ferocious demand pushing NYC rents ever higher”
Ok so now tell me how many of those projected million are actually gonna show up and vote
November 3, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Voters: “we are really worried that housing has become unaffordable”
New York Post: “good news: one candidate can reduce the ferocious demand pushing NYC rents ever higher”
New York Post: “good news: one candidate can reduce the ferocious demand pushing NYC rents ever higher”
A traveller in an ancient land
Once saw a visage drowned in sand
It sneered upon the passer by
Legless yet mocking to the eye
It bade one look upon his ware
And counsels thee now to despair
He’s now a meme, but for his sins
He goes on being King of Kings
Once saw a visage drowned in sand
It sneered upon the passer by
Legless yet mocking to the eye
It bade one look upon his ware
And counsels thee now to despair
He’s now a meme, but for his sins
He goes on being King of Kings
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works and see it, say it, sorted.
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works and thank you for your attention to this matter.
November 3, 2025 at 7:16 PM
A traveller in an ancient land
Once saw a visage drowned in sand
It sneered upon the passer by
Legless yet mocking to the eye
It bade one look upon his ware
And counsels thee now to despair
He’s now a meme, but for his sins
He goes on being King of Kings
Once saw a visage drowned in sand
It sneered upon the passer by
Legless yet mocking to the eye
It bade one look upon his ware
And counsels thee now to despair
He’s now a meme, but for his sins
He goes on being King of Kings
Reposted by James Chalmers
Lady Rose's James Wood Lecture, delivered at the University of Glasgow yesterday: supremecourt.uk/uploads/spee...
October 31, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Lady Rose's James Wood Lecture, delivered at the University of Glasgow yesterday: supremecourt.uk/uploads/spee...
One thing colouring discussion of this report may be that there have been other reports of people caught by this who have found it very difficult to get HMRC to fix things. But this report seems a bad example because it looks like there was an error and it was fixed, which is much less of a story.
UK woman who booked Oslo flight but did not fly loses child benefit ‘because she emigrated’
Exclusive: HMRC told Lisa Morris-Almond there was no record of her return to UK, but she did not take the trip
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:58 PM
One thing colouring discussion of this report may be that there have been other reports of people caught by this who have found it very difficult to get HMRC to fix things. But this report seems a bad example because it looks like there was an error and it was fixed, which is much less of a story.
Reposted by James Chalmers
Good piece in spite of where it is. A lot of people need to understand that, in most of Eastern Europe, the only political ideologies with any relevance at all are, for lack of a better term, 'Europeanism' and right-wing nationalism that sometimes deploys Soviet nostalgia
"Sultana embodies the kind of British leftist who would do anything for the world’s working class except listen to them."
www.spectator.co.uk/article/zara...
www.spectator.co.uk/article/zara...
Zarah Sultana’s pompous, luxury beliefs about Ukraine
Zarah Sultana loves to pose as a champion of the working class, seeing the world through the lens of class struggle. Even, it seems, the war in Ukraine. In her latest interview, she calls Nato ‘an imp...
www.spectator.co.uk
October 30, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Good piece in spite of where it is. A lot of people need to understand that, in most of Eastern Europe, the only political ideologies with any relevance at all are, for lack of a better term, 'Europeanism' and right-wing nationalism that sometimes deploys Soviet nostalgia
Reposted by James Chalmers
Wrote about the dominance of "victims" in our political discourse, which included this fab chart @owenwntr.bsky.social www.economist.com/britain/2025...
October 30, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Wrote about the dominance of "victims" in our political discourse, which included this fab chart @owenwntr.bsky.social www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Fully aware this is Reeves’ own responsibility, but: unless for some inexplicable reason you are using a letting agent that does not operate locally how on earth does the agent not tell you something as basic as this? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Chancellor Rachel Reeves admits breaking housing rules by renting out home
Rachel Reeves refers herself to the PM's ethics adviser after
www.bbc.co.uk
October 29, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Fully aware this is Reeves’ own responsibility, but: unless for some inexplicable reason you are using a letting agent that does not operate locally how on earth does the agent not tell you something as basic as this? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by James Chalmers
Take this quiz to die instantly www.americansurveycenter.org/quiz/
Beyond the Ballot Quiz - The Survey Center on American Life
www.americansurveycenter.org
October 29, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Take this quiz to die instantly www.americansurveycenter.org/quiz/
If you think this story looks ridiculous on the face of it, it gets even better when you read it and discover he got a refund on the desk and bought three at £150 each from Ikea instead.
October 27, 2025 at 10:56 AM
If you think this story looks ridiculous on the face of it, it gets even better when you read it and discover he got a refund on the desk and bought three at £150 each from Ikea instead.
Reposted by James Chalmers
My column in the @ftweekend.com: Keir Starmer is in trouble because he has not been serious about governing, and the best way for him to turn things around is for him to become serious:
Starmer needs to get serious about governing — and quick
The prime minister has to change or his party will seek a change of its own
www.ft.com
October 25, 2025 at 11:28 AM
My column in the @ftweekend.com: Keir Starmer is in trouble because he has not been serious about governing, and the best way for him to turn things around is for him to become serious:
Reposted by James Chalmers
Pensioner with dementia living in a care home is convicted in our broken court system over a £43 car bill
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/p...
I’ve been writing versions of this story for more than two years now. If politicians were interested in helping vulnerable people, they would act
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/p...
I’ve been writing versions of this story for more than two years now. If politicians were interested in helping vulnerable people, they would act
Fast-track court scandal: Pensioner with dementia convicted over £43 car bill
The pensioner’s conviction is the latest scandal to emerge from the controversial Single Justice Procedure
www.standard.co.uk
October 25, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Pensioner with dementia living in a care home is convicted in our broken court system over a £43 car bill
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/p...
I’ve been writing versions of this story for more than two years now. If politicians were interested in helping vulnerable people, they would act
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/p...
I’ve been writing versions of this story for more than two years now. If politicians were interested in helping vulnerable people, they would act
Reposted by James Chalmers
I guess I don’t think she’ll be a disaster, in that the office provides limited scope for disaster (and Lord knows Michael D has tested the boundaries) but I can’t get past the fact the new president voluntarily went to Syria as a guest of the regime in 2018, when we knew all to there was to know
October 25, 2025 at 9:14 AM
I guess I don’t think she’ll be a disaster, in that the office provides limited scope for disaster (and Lord knows Michael D has tested the boundaries) but I can’t get past the fact the new president voluntarily went to Syria as a guest of the regime in 2018, when we knew all to there was to know
Downloaded a foreign language Oxford Dictionary app which I would have happily paid for but it wants a subscription - claiming the starting price is £260/year! - so instead I have the version full of cheap and tacky ads which I am not sure is what you really want linked to the Oxford brand name.
October 25, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Downloaded a foreign language Oxford Dictionary app which I would have happily paid for but it wants a subscription - claiming the starting price is £260/year! - so instead I have the version full of cheap and tacky ads which I am not sure is what you really want linked to the Oxford brand name.
Thanks MUBI but I had an ok week at work; is everything ok with you?
October 25, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Thanks MUBI but I had an ok week at work; is everything ok with you?
I’ve only been loosely following the contest but it did (apart from bizarre comments by Philipson suggesting electing Powell would tear the party in two) feel like “would you like the deputy to be a critical friend or a friendly critic?” in which case I can see why voters might just not bother.
Powell’s election is a sign of the disillusionment of Labour members - but there is a much much bigger and more worrying sign.
Turn out was just 16%
Turn out was just 16%
BREAKING: Lucy Powell is elected Labour’s deputy leader
October 25, 2025 at 9:16 AM
I’ve only been loosely following the contest but it did (apart from bizarre comments by Philipson suggesting electing Powell would tear the party in two) feel like “would you like the deputy to be a critical friend or a friendly critic?” in which case I can see why voters might just not bother.
Reposted by James Chalmers
Scroll down to the Major Events Timeline, and nothing will prepare you for what you'll see. I cannot believe it is real. www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-wh...
The White House Building
Every president since John Adams has occupied the White House, and the history of this building extends far beyond the construction of its walls. From the Ground Floor Corridor rooms, transformed from...
www.whitehouse.gov
October 24, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Scroll down to the Major Events Timeline, and nothing will prepare you for what you'll see. I cannot believe it is real. www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-wh...
Reposted by James Chalmers
Call for papers for a workshop on Economic Aspects of the Constitution: www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_...
October 23, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Call for papers for a workshop on Economic Aspects of the Constitution: www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_...