Laurence Eastham
@laurence-eastham.bsky.social
Retired legal editor and writer (mainly Blackstone's Criminal Practice and Computers & Law). Now walking football and reading with occasional tourism.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten.
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
November 10, 2025 at 6:40 PM
SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten.
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
Terrifying. And it looks like Arsenal fans may need a new nickname.
“Even so, it seemed beyond dispute that sixty years ago some of these gooners would have been fathers. Small-business owners. Dependable men in hats riding slow commuter trains, their mindscapes perfumed with thoughts of stocks, bonds, lawn care. Well, what could you do?” This is. Well.
dear god in heaven above harpers.org/archive/2025...
November 10, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Terrifying. And it looks like Arsenal fans may need a new nickname.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
I hear Peter Mandelson is looking for a new role.
November 9, 2025 at 6:25 PM
I hear Peter Mandelson is looking for a new role.
Amid all the pre-budge gloom and talk of raids, I'd like to say that I would welcome 2p on income tax and 2p off NI. And I say that as a pensioner who currently pays a lower effective rate than my son and daughter-in-law.
November 8, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Amid all the pre-budge gloom and talk of raids, I'd like to say that I would welcome 2p on income tax and 2p off NI. And I say that as a pensioner who currently pays a lower effective rate than my son and daughter-in-law.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
Football as a community builder... I was walking down to a Lancaster game recently and someone I've known for years was parking his car and said "this is good, being top, will make us feel better when we finish 14th..." and it is that shared experience... www.theguardian.com/football/202...
‘We could be winning or losing – it doesn’t matter as long as we’re together’: the friendships forged on football terraces
It starts with singing, banter or enthusiastic goal celebrations – and leads to so much more. Six groups of fan friends share how they met
www.theguardian.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Football as a community builder... I was walking down to a Lancaster game recently and someone I've known for years was parking his car and said "this is good, being top, will make us feel better when we finish 14th..." and it is that shared experience... www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
New, by me
The real problem which blights our prison and punishment system
The way we think about custodial sentences is what needs to change
Reflections on the wrongful prison release news
Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/the-real-p...
Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/11/the-...
The real problem which blights our prison and punishment system
The way we think about custodial sentences is what needs to change
Reflections on the wrongful prison release news
Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/the-real-p...
Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/11/the-...
The real problem which blights our prison and punishment system
7th November 2025 The way we think about custodial sentences is what needs to change * Today’s news is about prisons: * Let us take a step back. There is a serious addiction problem which blights o…
davidallengreen.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:59 AM
New, by me
The real problem which blights our prison and punishment system
The way we think about custodial sentences is what needs to change
Reflections on the wrongful prison release news
Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/the-real-p...
Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/11/the-...
The real problem which blights our prison and punishment system
The way we think about custodial sentences is what needs to change
Reflections on the wrongful prison release news
Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/the-real-p...
Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/11/the-...
My wife's passing reference to a lady 'who lives down the lane' led us to try and remember the nursery ryhme that ends with that phrase. Ten minutes later of 'animated discussion', aka failure, and we googled. Baa, Baa, Black Sheep FFS. We are ringing the care home to make reservations now.
November 1, 2025 at 11:53 AM
My wife's passing reference to a lady 'who lives down the lane' led us to try and remember the nursery ryhme that ends with that phrase. Ten minutes later of 'animated discussion', aka failure, and we googled. Baa, Baa, Black Sheep FFS. We are ringing the care home to make reservations now.
Is that you after Gogglebox gave a mention to Wake up to money?
“BUT MUM I’M NOT REMOTELY WIRED!!”
October 31, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Is that you after Gogglebox gave a mention to Wake up to money?
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
Hero
Man with stubble, "Small boats arrivals are 37,000. There are over 4 million kids in child poverty. And 4.5 million who can't get a dentist appointment" #BBCQT
"We spend 90% of the media discourse on the 37,000. How much more could we achieve if we put that effort into the 4.5 million?"
"We spend 90% of the media discourse on the 37,000. How much more could we achieve if we put that effort into the 4.5 million?"
October 30, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Hero
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
“This letter gets right to the heart of debates about children’s right to play and their right to the street. It ignores the fact that cars have encroached onto streets, which had previously been regarded as social spaces, not the other way round”.
October 23, 2025 at 4:23 PM
“This letter gets right to the heart of debates about children’s right to play and their right to the street. It ignores the fact that cars have encroached onto streets, which had previously been regarded as social spaces, not the other way round”.
Indeed. That's not going to stop me doing it.
So easy to shout at the players for being useless when we already know who the traitors are and the programme’s cleverly edited for our benefit. #CelebrityTraitors
October 23, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Indeed. That's not going to stop me doing it.
I admit that I was tempted to press that button to spite Cameron. For once, and it's a rare instance, I resisted temptation.
Why isn't Marina on here?
Why isn't Marina on here?
Sadly, there's a lot to be said for Marina Hyde's analysis here. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
October 22, 2025 at 9:31 AM
I admit that I was tempted to press that button to spite Cameron. For once, and it's a rare instance, I resisted temptation.
Why isn't Marina on here?
Why isn't Marina on here?
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
It was two OUP books.
October 10, 2025 at 10:14 AM
It was two OUP books.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
All these people really want is to pay no taxes and be treated with floor scraping deference. Everything else is just bullshit in pursuit of that goal.
Party donor Nick Candy says "I cherish the values we grew up with here in the West. But today you are more likely to find the values we grew up with in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.’
Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...
Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...
October 7, 2025 at 8:50 PM
All these people really want is to pay no taxes and be treated with floor scraping deference. Everything else is just bullshit in pursuit of that goal.
Brilliant find. The story I didn't know I really needed to know.
Umm. Good lord
From March 1960: poor old Terry-Thomas had his gasper-clasper nicked by a local scally
October 5, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Brilliant find. The story I didn't know I really needed to know.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.
October 2, 2025 at 11:36 AM
You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
Sums up this most dismal moment.
September 30, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Sums up this most dismal moment.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
Tony Harrison RIP
I taught Long Distance, his beautiful & honest poem about bereavement to my students for decades.
Eventually, it provided consolation to me as well.
I taught Long Distance, his beautiful & honest poem about bereavement to my students for decades.
Eventually, it provided consolation to me as well.
September 27, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Tony Harrison RIP
I taught Long Distance, his beautiful & honest poem about bereavement to my students for decades.
Eventually, it provided consolation to me as well.
I taught Long Distance, his beautiful & honest poem about bereavement to my students for decades.
Eventually, it provided consolation to me as well.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
If this intends to make it legally compulsory for every adult in Derry to carry something called a "Brit Card", then I'm willing to offer some high-paid consultancy on why this plan might be flawed.
Every adult in Britain to require new ‘Brit Card’ ID
Every adult in Britain to require new ‘Brit Card’ ID
www.independent.co.uk
September 25, 2025 at 4:14 PM
If this intends to make it legally compulsory for every adult in Derry to carry something called a "Brit Card", then I'm willing to offer some high-paid consultancy on why this plan might be flawed.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
formally launching my "Burnham is a symptom not a solution" take
if your Labour party finds itself turning to Andy Burnham and going ohhhhhh should we maybe go for him instead then that means your Labour party is feeling poorly and must be tended to, don't ignore the Burnham warning signs
if your Labour party finds itself turning to Andy Burnham and going ohhhhhh should we maybe go for him instead then that means your Labour party is feeling poorly and must be tended to, don't ignore the Burnham warning signs
September 25, 2025 at 8:22 AM
formally launching my "Burnham is a symptom not a solution" take
if your Labour party finds itself turning to Andy Burnham and going ohhhhhh should we maybe go for him instead then that means your Labour party is feeling poorly and must be tended to, don't ignore the Burnham warning signs
if your Labour party finds itself turning to Andy Burnham and going ohhhhhh should we maybe go for him instead then that means your Labour party is feeling poorly and must be tended to, don't ignore the Burnham warning signs
I agree with the suggestion in the last para. It's not going down well with my 'comfortably off' friends in their 70s, who seem to think I've morphed into Mao. But it remains ridiculous that I'm taxed at a lower rate, effectively, than my daughter in law, a nurse.
(2/2)
So what *should* the government do? Some suggestions from me & colleagues ( @uofgvc.bsky.social @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social @mazzucatom.bsky.social @elerianm.bsky.social, Jim O'Neill, Gus O'Donnell) here:
archive.ph/M4r2Z
So what *should* the government do? Some suggestions from me & colleagues ( @uofgvc.bsky.social @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social @mazzucatom.bsky.social @elerianm.bsky.social, Jim O'Neill, Gus O'Donnell) here:
archive.ph/M4r2Z
September 25, 2025 at 8:22 AM
I agree with the suggestion in the last para. It's not going down well with my 'comfortably off' friends in their 70s, who seem to think I've morphed into Mao. But it remains ridiculous that I'm taxed at a lower rate, effectively, than my daughter in law, a nurse.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
Absolutely not. Britain came up with the migrants-eating-beloved-animals meme ("Swan bake", The Sun, 2003). And which country pioneered irresponsible speculation about medicines and autism? America is a re-exporter.
We have exported our greatest domestic product: stupidity
September 24, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Absolutely not. Britain came up with the migrants-eating-beloved-animals meme ("Swan bake", The Sun, 2003). And which country pioneered irresponsible speculation about medicines and autism? America is a re-exporter.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
I’m old enough to remember something like this being career-ending. An unprompted comparison of paracetamol and *thalidomide*??
"We were told thalidomide was a safe drug and it wasn't..."
Nigel Farage says he has 'no idea' if Donald Trump is right about paracetamol being linked to autism.
Nigel Farage says he has 'no idea' if Donald Trump is right about paracetamol being linked to autism.
September 24, 2025 at 8:38 AM
I’m old enough to remember something like this being career-ending. An unprompted comparison of paracetamol and *thalidomide*??
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
Fair play to Sadiq Khan. To live rent-free inside the head of the president of the USA is a massive achievement for any Mayor of London.
September 23, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Fair play to Sadiq Khan. To live rent-free inside the head of the president of the USA is a massive achievement for any Mayor of London.
Reposted by Laurence Eastham
Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds
open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...
open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...
September 23, 2025 at 6:29 AM
Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds
open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...
open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...