Ben Donaldson

King Charles married Lady Diana Spencer 44 years ago...

Word of the day is ‘foxy’ (19th century), used of weather that misleads you into thinking it’s extremely warm when in reality it’s pretty chilly.

Trump on NATO: If the United States was in trouble and we called them and said we've got a problem. You think they're going to come and protect us? I’m not so sure

A really lovely and uplifting obituary in @thetimes for @JamesTurner37 today. And of course his work goes on as I’ve just drafted a skeleton in support of the grounds of appeal he drafted in his last reported case of XY v XX [2024]

Five Thai hostages were released today by the Palestinian factions in Gaza - the issue has been so undercovered I wasn’t aware they were still there, since many Thais were released in Nov 23. I’ve never seen Hamas or Jihad pressed as to why they killed & kidnapped them 1/

Our erstwhile producer has bet me a considerable sum of money that I won't quote tweet this with the words "and he was right to do it". And now I have.

31 December 1903 | Jewish man, Jacob Caplan, was born in Manchester (UK). He emigrated to Norway in 1914. A football player and merchant. In November 1942 he was deported to #Auschwitz. No. 81954 He perished in the camp on 19 March 1943.

BREAKING: The Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3 has been chased, intercepted, and boarded by Danish Navy vessel Y311 Søløven after the Chinese vessel destroyed 2 undersea telecom cables linking Finland-Germany and Sweden-Lithuania. The vessel sailed from Russia & the captain is Russian

An utterly tragic case.

Probably the shortest and best obituary of the IRA Army Council's Martin McGuinness - awarded State Funeral Honours by the Catholic Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown...

What did you do at work today Alex? Spent 4 hours trying to access a secure email from a Local Authority that uses their own secure messaging system, changed my password twice without success and ultimately gave up.

You know things are bad when the BBC North-West news are listing the number of riot-related arrests by county like its an Olympic medal-winning table

Just missed a train because I tried to get in and out of a curry house in twenty minutes. Agonisingly close. We go again

biden’s team preparing for tonight

Denis Healey, quite probably the only man in history to have met Stalin and Zig and Zag

This weekend marks the 28th anniversary of the IRA bomb that rocked Manchester one Saturday afternoon back in 1996. What a powerful image of that particular moment. 📸 | Pinterest

This was the Government's view of National Service on Thursday.

This couldn’t make the word count but I’m absolutely living for it.

X and Y (Revocation of Adoption Orders), Re [2024] EWHC 1059 (Fam) (25 April 2024): Application by adoptive mother to revoke adoption orders in respect of two children aged 17 and 16, the adoption placement having broken down. Application refused. caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/fam/2024/…