Cyrus Razavi

@WilliamClouston Erm, the idea is for an earlier drop off to allow for parents to go to work and support the economy. The actual breakfast is ancillary. You could make it a packed breakfast club if you really wanted, but toast is cheap

All children should receive a good lunch at school. Breakfast, however, is a family responsibility. In a healthy society the state has no business here.

@rawespresso I actually think our GP service is excellent, prompt reviews and easy requests for repeat prescriptions. Have to pay for prescription but I don't begrudge that. Urgent treatment centres were also great. In terms of secondary care, I think the NHS needs a lot of work/modernisation

The NHS is constantly held up as one of the best things about Britain. Try using it. You wait three weeks for a GP appointment. The receptionist tells you to call back next Monday at 8am because the system only takes same-day bookings. You call at 8:01 and you're 47th in the queue. When you finally get seen, a significant portion of the doctors are agency staff parachuted in for the day. Some are excellent. Some you can barely have a conversation with — not because they're not smart or skilled, but because the system has been recruiting from abroad for decades without making sure communication standards are in place. The buildings are crumbling, the waiting lists run into the millions, and the staff who keep it running are paid less in real terms than they were 15 years ago and quietly leaving the profession every year. Telling people the NHS is the envy of the world is a story that comforts politicians. Anyone who's actually been in the system in the last decade knows the gap between the brand and the experience.

@cprkrn @AnthropicAI @DarioAmodei We are in a window where the AI will help you recover your bitcoin but is not yet devious enough to keep it for itself

HOLY FUCKING SHIT OMG CLAUDE JUST CRACKED THIS SHIT, THANK YOU @AnthropicAI THANK YOU @DarioAmodei NAMING MY KID AFTER YOU 😍 blockchain.com/explorer/addre…

@thomasroeqc It seemed to me that he didn't tell the jury they were free to disregard his directions of law, but rather not to misinterpret these directions as infringing on their rights as a jury not to convict, but anyway allegedly as you say

It’s unfortunate that this statement from the Bar Council mentions a barrister’s duty to represent a client fearlessly but not a barrister’s duty to uphold the rule of law. The judge in this case had expressly directed that counsel were not to tell the jury that they were free to disregard his directions of law. The barrister allegedly - and at this stage this is just an allegation - did exactly what the judge had ruled that he must not do. All the Court of Appeal has done is to hold that the procedure the judge adopted to deal with this possible contempt was wrong. It has returned the matter to the judge for him to take forward under the correct procedure, if he sees fit. It is hardly appropriate for the Bar Council to be pronouncing at this stage that the matter should be at an end.

@EndWokeness 'Gift' from Trump, keeps him in line?

Rubio is wearing the Maduro tracksuit on his flight to China

@doctoriaindarcy What if you live in you car, do you have to pay council tax then? Or you already pay car tax so...

If Dan had researched this further, he would have found out that a lot of councils generally do not bill or enforced council tax on boat dwellers because if they did, they would have to offer he same amenities and the costs would far outweigh the money coming in.

@Heccles94 Lolz

He lives in a shared house for goodness sake… It’s just getting embarrassing now.

@xenopoesis3 @Jackmeough7058 @HudaAmmori Don't the jury need to be made aware of the law prior to making their judgement on it?

@Jackmeough7058 @HudaAmmori It only needs to be announced in open court during the sentencing hearing. So the jury can be unaware that they are opening the possibility of a defendant being treated as a terrorist

BREAKING: For the first time, a Judge will seek to sentence direct action activists, four of the Filton 24, as terrorists. They were convicted of criminal damage, with the jury unaware of a potential terrorism sentence. Reporting restrictions on this have just been lifted.

@EllroyLove Well, I suppose, if they're laundering cash, then they're net taxpayers 🤣😅

I asked a female copper this morning in Woking if 12 barbers shops and 22 vape/phone shops all run by Kurdish or Pakistani gangsters with no customers and expensive cars outside was suspicious. She told me it was “my opinion not fact” and I thought maybe let’s leave it there.

Big day for @GSTTnhs congratulations to all.

@najam_ali What's more, coercive diplomacy is difficult because the USA is looking for an out from the issue. Once some of the coercion subsides the coerced party is unlikely to feel any obligation to meet any commitments that were made under coercion.

The U.S. is highly experienced in negotiations, but often from a position where pressure and leverage do most of the work. Its negotiations are based on coercive diplomacy. However, Iran has proven to be a far more difficult case because it has shown an unusual capacity to absorb pressure and impose costs in return. This is precisely why an agreement with Iran has become such an insurmountable challenge.

@Balltohand1 @ZillRah7 Exactly how did he go against instructions given by the judge? I don't see any evidence of that in his speech.

@ZillRah7 He went against the instructions given by the judge and the judge was right to give this instruction. I'm not interested in the political beliefs of the jurors - I want the law to be applied.

It’s truly extraordinary what’s happening to Rajiv Menon — being persecuted simply for doing his job, and doing it well. Sadly, when it comes to defending the rights of Palestinians and those who support them, this kind of treatment no longer surprises me. #Solidarity 👊🏽

Statement by Barristers Chambers re Prosecution of Rajiv Menon Kc Rajiv Menon KC, a highly respected silk at Garden Court Chambers and a former head of chambers, is facing proceedings for contempt of court. The alleged contempt concerns a closing speech that Rajiv delivered to a jury at the Woolwich Crown Court in January 2026. The trial involved pro-Palestine activists causing criminal damage to weapons and other property at a factory in Filton, Bristol belonging to Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer. Not only is this the first time in English legal history that a barrister is being prosecuted for contempt in respect of a closing speech at a criminal trial, but the procedure being used to prosecute Rajiv is wholly novel and without historical precedent. Until this week, any publication about Rajiv being prosecuted for contempt has been prohibited by various court orders. As a result of reporting restrictions now being lifted, Garden Court Chambers is at last able to comment publicly on this matter. We have supported Rajiv throughout the proceedings, including significant numbers of our members attending court hearings at the Royal Courts of Justice. Rajiv is independently represented by solicitors and leading counsel who have made powerful arguments about the jurisdictional legality and procedural propriety of the contempt proceedings being brought against Rajiv. Judgment is currently awaited from the Court of Appeal (Civil Division). It is hoped that the arguments being advanced will prevail, and that the proceedings against Rajiv will be swiftly concluded without Rajiv having to stand trial. Whatever the outcome, Garden Court Chambers will continue to support Rajiv. It is important to note that the prosecution of Rajiv for contempt has wider constitutional implications. We are extremely concerned about the chilling effect on the Bar of the state seeking to criminalise barristers for their representation of their clients. Such action is bound to undermine the confidence of the public that those charged, particularly in political and controversial cases, can receive the committed representation that they would expect to be provided.

@rivier @RichardOsley It appears that I triggered something in her small brain 😅

@rivier @RichardOsley Councillors don't run the council though, the employees do. Councillors represent the people so just because do you a job for the council doesn't mean that you should lose your democratic rights, it could just be a DOI so if a teacher you could abstain from a school-related vote.

We have a MESS in Camden. a Green candidate has been elected but is a teacher at one of the borough’s schools… which means you can’t be a councillor. He’s been told he can’t sign the induction papers. By-election likely in Regent’s Park.

Rajiv Menon was my barrister when I appeared before the Tribunal investigating police surveillance of left and women's groups. His opening speech was brilliant. He is on of this country's most gifted barristers, a descendant of Mike Mansfield. His prosecution is an appalling instance of some judges prostrating themselves before the needs of the state as they did a number of times against Irish and Muslim prisoners. One hope they might have learnt from how they treated the Irish. Doesn't seem to be the case.

One part of the travesty of the Filton 6 actionists’ trial and retrial that has received less attention but is very important: Rajiv Menon, King’s Council, barrister for a member of the Filton 6, is being persecuted on a wholly unprecedented charge of contempt of court, carrying a punishment of up to two years imprisonment, for mentioning legal history and principles of law that allow juries to make independent decisions on conscience that Judge Johnson ruled out. In the first trial’s closing statement to the jury, Menon pointed out the case that established this principle from 1670 and quoted the public plaque outside the Old Bailey (the central court in London) commemorating the case. He also reminded the jurors six times that the judge could not direct them to convict. The jury exonerated all the defendants in that first trial. Now they have been retried and convicted on some charges. It sounds like Rajiv Menon is being punished for being extremely good at his job and for explaining the actual law relevant to the rights of the jury that this establishment judge close to the UK police and security services unethically suppressed to secure a political conviction to protect Elbit Systems. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Judge Johnson set up the rules and judgments precisely to engineer a conviction to circumvent the propensity of juries to acquit actionists. Then he plans to sentence them under extremely harsh terrorism laws by manipulating unjustly what jurors could know. Rajiv Menon initially disrupted that plan in the first trial. So now the judge and state are going after him. We must support Rajiv Menon, a fantastic and principled barrister, and the actionists against the UK state’s punitive crackdown on those using democratic rights to protest and stop the Israeli arms industry from facilitating war crimes, illegal occupation and genocide. The corrupt and complicit political establishment in the UK has shown themselves willing to evacuate rights to free speech and assembly, jury trials, press freedom and a host of democratic rights for all citizens simply to protect Israel’s impunity and their own complicity in the genocide. Support Rajiv Menon for defending pro-Palestine actionists and condemn what the UK courts and injustice system have done to jury trials and democratic rights!

Indeed 💚

@Tamer_Alnoaizy One of the worst inhumane moments in humanity's history, on multiple levels of action and inaction.

One of the most horrifying and brutal scenes ever captured on camera in modern history. Israeli soldiers opened fire on thousands of starving Palestinians in Gaza as they ran in desperation trying to get a piece of food during the war on Gaza. A moment the world must never forget.