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.
See also this earlier one:
November 7, 2025 at 11:12 PM
See also this earlier one:
Pleased to see I still have this screenshot of him lambasting MSPs - not, of course, of his own calibre - for voting for a particular bit of legislation before it was gently pointed out to him he’d voted for identical legislation in Westminster himself.
November 7, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Pleased to see I still have this screenshot of him lambasting MSPs - not, of course, of his own calibre - for voting for a particular bit of legislation before it was gently pointed out to him he’d voted for identical legislation in Westminster himself.
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.
My contrarian view is that I am now *less* sympathetic to Reeves if, rather than just not saying anything, the agent told her they would apply for a licence and it never appeared. (But that is not the same as actually thinking this matters.) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
October 30, 2025 at 11:35 PM
My contrarian view is that I am now *less* sympathetic to Reeves if, rather than just not saying anything, the agent told her they would apply for a licence and it never appeared. (But that is not the same as actually thinking this matters.) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
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?
Noticeable that again it’s the Lib Dems providing a response while Labour keep silent.
October 23, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Noticeable that again it’s the Lib Dems providing a response while Labour keep silent.
My notifications remain a chaos of people talking about internet enabled cat feeders which meant I spent longer than I should have looking at this rare quote tweet of something else I posted very confused as to what was going on.
October 20, 2025 at 4:04 PM
My notifications remain a chaos of people talking about internet enabled cat feeders which meant I spent longer than I should have looking at this rare quote tweet of something else I posted very confused as to what was going on.
On the one hand I see where he’s coming from. On the other hand, literally every single bit of commentary I’ve seen on this has been “woo, heist!”
October 20, 2025 at 8:52 AM
On the one hand I see where he’s coming from. On the other hand, literally every single bit of commentary I’ve seen on this has been “woo, heist!”
This remains the funniest way to hear about an internet outage, though.
October 20, 2025 at 8:41 AM
This remains the funniest way to hear about an internet outage, though.
(mournfully) it’s out in November!
October 18, 2025 at 3:08 PM
(mournfully) it’s out in November!
Trying unsuccessfully to find the meme about how the problem with Twitter was people getting shouted at by a thousand people when they only deserved to get shouted at by two or three - maybe the reverse is now true? - and thanks Google, I never knew that.
October 18, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Trying unsuccessfully to find the meme about how the problem with Twitter was people getting shouted at by a thousand people when they only deserved to get shouted at by two or three - maybe the reverse is now true? - and thanks Google, I never knew that.
A lot that could be said about this but if you look on Twitter it’s noticeable that the replies and quote tweets are *overwhelmingly* telling him he shouldn’t have apologised and even attacking him for doing so. That’s the feedback loop certain users are plugged into now, and it has consequences.
October 18, 2025 at 1:34 PM
A lot that could be said about this but if you look on Twitter it’s noticeable that the replies and quote tweets are *overwhelmingly* telling him he shouldn’t have apologised and even attacking him for doing so. That’s the feedback loop certain users are plugged into now, and it has consequences.
Even Phillipson in person has been absurd. “No you can’t elect the person who was a literal cabinet member until a few weeks back, do you want to tear the party in two?”
October 13, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Even Phillipson in person has been absurd. “No you can’t elect the person who was a literal cabinet member until a few weeks back, do you want to tear the party in two?”
The Fahrenheit Thermometer in Gdańsk, in honour of the scale’s inventor, features two important design choices:
- What did Daniel Fahrenheit look like? We don’t know but we’re guessing “ripped”
- look we have to put Celsius on the scale as well or people won’t understand it otherwise
- What did Daniel Fahrenheit look like? We don’t know but we’re guessing “ripped”
- look we have to put Celsius on the scale as well or people won’t understand it otherwise
October 11, 2025 at 12:45 PM
The Fahrenheit Thermometer in Gdańsk, in honour of the scale’s inventor, features two important design choices:
- What did Daniel Fahrenheit look like? We don’t know but we’re guessing “ripped”
- look we have to put Celsius on the scale as well or people won’t understand it otherwise
- What did Daniel Fahrenheit look like? We don’t know but we’re guessing “ripped”
- look we have to put Celsius on the scale as well or people won’t understand it otherwise
There is I think a sort of liberal comfort belief that the system is self-correcting; if the right does something bad then there will be an equal and opposite reaction restoring order. You see this a lot as a reaction to lots of things Trump does or proposes and… the belief just isn’t true!
![Jenrick being the loudest member of the Conservative party has already been a huge contributor to the poisoning of our politics. We really don't need any four-dimensional chess about him becoming leader. When it happens, it will be a terrible day for our country.
[quoting the post below]
A Tory party under Jenrick might take a few of the racist votes from Reform, but they’d haemorrhage bucketloads to the Lib Dems.
So, on balance…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kc4iodwrwf3vsopm6lx6xktg/bafkreicisoc3vzvddcvt6xuvcwux2fpdyuklew3uopki2kpesme2et6nje@jpeg)
October 8, 2025 at 10:19 AM
There is I think a sort of liberal comfort belief that the system is self-correcting; if the right does something bad then there will be an equal and opposite reaction restoring order. You see this a lot as a reaction to lots of things Trump does or proposes and… the belief just isn’t true!
The last time the right wing of British politics was behaving this way (and it wasn’t as bad as now) it was easy to be complacent about it, thinking “well I guess people will just keep voting for the more popular centre-left party until the right adopts a more moderate approach”. Now…
October 5, 2025 at 3:53 PM
The last time the right wing of British politics was behaving this way (and it wasn’t as bad as now) it was easy to be complacent about it, thinking “well I guess people will just keep voting for the more popular centre-left party until the right adopts a more moderate approach”. Now…
Looks like this:
October 4, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Looks like this:
“Thank you for your email. We are currently on a leadership hiatus and will deal with your message after a future vote of no confidence.”
October 3, 2025 at 10:44 AM
“Thank you for your email. We are currently on a leadership hiatus and will deal with your message after a future vote of no confidence.”
Amazing spam advert on a Reach page: "the tragedy of Cliff Richard is that he is".
October 1, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Amazing spam advert on a Reach page: "the tragedy of Cliff Richard is that he is".
A quick search suggests there are around 0.75m people doing apprenticeships in England with half of apprenticeships started by people over 25. I’m not sure how that translates overall to the number of “young people” who do one but does this policy actually still imply more than 50% going to uni?
September 30, 2025 at 1:57 PM
A quick search suggests there are around 0.75m people doing apprenticeships in England with half of apprenticeships started by people over 25. I’m not sure how that translates overall to the number of “young people” who do one but does this policy actually still imply more than 50% going to uni?