Cross-Party Collaboration and the UK Constitution
Like road-safe driverless cars and no-fault divorce, the possibility of cross-party cooperation to end the Brexit crisis has for some time seemed tantalisingly close, but has never quite materialised. This raises fascinating questions about how cross-party...
Una-Mary Parker
We were extremely sad to learn of the death of Una-Mary Parker, a brilliant interviewee of ours for the Balancing Beliefs project. Una-Mary’s life was fascinating, and we have included the link to one her obituaries below. As well as a highly successful career as a...
Betraying the People or Serving the Nation? Brexit, Dominic Grieve and the Constitution
What does it mean to respect democracy and uphold constitutional values? Since the beginning of the Brexit drama, heated recriminations have been flung by both the Leave and Remain camps, each side claiming that the other has undermined the integrity of the political...
Parliament and Executive: Brexit and the Speaker
So far the Brexit story has had more plot-twists than Game of Thrones, although admittedly fewer fire-breathing dragons. The latest drama arose when on Monday the Speaker John Bercow used the Erskine May, the constitutional handbook which is widely accepted as an...
Islamophobia, Terrorism and Hate Crime
The world is again reeling from brutal and senseless terrorist attacks. At least 49 innocent people lost their lives when a gunman opened fire on a mosque in Christchurch New Zealand last week, live-streaming the atrocity on social media as he did so. At the time of...
International Women’s Day
International Women’s DayHappy Birthday to the approximately 386,000 babies who enter the world today! For every 100 girls, there will be 107 boys. Some of this is due to innate biology, but regrettably selective sex abortion and the gendercide (the deliberate...
Access to knowledge: Parents, Children and the State
There is nothing new about parents objecting to their children receiving information about sexuality and sexual health. The famous Gillick case involved one woman’s personal crusade to prevent her daughters being given advice or contraception without her knowledge. ...
Returning to the UK from IS
The story of Shamima Begum is so high profile at present that we hardly need to repeat the basic facts which have emerged in the press. In short, at the age of fifteen she ran away to join IS in the company of two other London schoolgirls. At a later stage, she...
Religious Freedom in Life and Death: The limits of Article 9
Death is part of life, and dealing with bereavement is a universal human experience, regardless of religion, culture or affluence, but the rituals, customs and beliefs surrounding the process are extremely varied, especially in a society as diverse as the contemporary...
Witchcraft, UK Law and Criminal Attempts to Harm
Last week, the first ever successful conviction for Female Genital Mutilation in the United Kingdom took place. Whilst this is a welcome, if long overdue step, in tackling the scourge of FGM, our blog this week focuses on a different aspect of the case. The...
Recent Comments