Matthew

@yuanyi_z It’s incredibly depressing that I used to watch TYT.

Wtf.

Britain has trading standards officers from the local council doing the kind of work that in America would be led by the FBI. Small businesses being used as fronts for money laundering is not a trading standards matter - it is serious organised crime.

Despite having no protection under the RC, having committed serious crimes here, Art 3 allows him to stay not because the Jamaican police won't protect him at all, but because the Jamaican police *may* not admit him into witness protection.

caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewca/civ/2026/… If evidence be needed of what is wrong with Article 3. A man who wounded his partner, burgled multiple houses and then raped a young women can stay here becaue there is a risk of gang violence in Jamaica over his mother having given evidence 25 years ago.

@MarieofGuise @andrewpconnell @yuanyi_z I find it hard to see how she would have succeeded on insanity. She knew exactly what she was doing, so the only argument would be that whatever condition she had, she didn't know murder was legally wrong.

@andrewpconnell @yuanyi_z One of the interesting aspects of the Ellis case was how determined she was in resisting any attempts by her counsel to persuade her to plead insanity and, after her conviction, to appeal against her sentence. Had she agreed to the latter she would likely have been reprieved

She is guilty of murder as a matter of law (Lammy did not clear her of that charge).

@AVintenAuthor @yuanyi_z Also, if this happened today she would still be convicted of murder or voluntary manslaughter. Self-defence doesn't extend to ambushing and gunning people down in the street, whatever kind of lowlife they might be.

@AVintenAuthor @yuanyi_z But what is the purpose of commuting a sentence which has already been carried out for a person who is already dead (and would already be dead even if she wasn't executed), while leaving them convicted of murder?

@DanNeidle @rogersbee67 The average person in London is still paying more to rent than a decade ago, in order to rent less space.

@DanNeidle @rogersbee67 They have slightly increased in a decade (0.7%), even before taking account of the fall in sq footage of the average rental in London. I didn't say they had increased massively, but its very different to the 17% fall you describe above.

I don't usually write personal stuff, but a few words about my experience of being interviewed by Gary Stevenson. It started with a nice chat, comparing taste in hoodies... then the tone changed. He demanded to know why I'd deleted a tweet criticising him.

Note to all - make sure you fact check the fundemental of Gary Stevenson's arguments, because often they are just assumptions driven by a conventional narrative.

@DanNeidle TBF, quite a lot of people (many on Bl*eSky) hold this worldview based on the core idea that we still live in the 1980s and 'Neoliberalism' rules. They will scream and shout if you try to show them the data because clever people cannot accept their worldview is so wrong.

@DanNeidle This isn't a suprise at all. His whole worldview is predicated on the assumption that inequality is rising rapidly in the UK. He has been told repeatedly that neither income nor wealth inequality is rising, and he won't accept it.

@rogersbee67 @DanNeidle Rents have increased in real terms in that time, so for most young people in London, housing is more expensive. Plus the cost of credit is now much higher than ten years ago, when very low interest mortgages were avaiable.

@DanNeidle Interesting and extremely odd because anybody who is paying any attention to these things should know this. That is not to say housing is not prohibativly expensive and crippling may young people. It is simply shows that housing cost were even more ridiculous 10 years ago.

@SebMilbank NIMBYs of Britain unite: - first group of NIMBYs object to energy infrastructure - the second group object to new housing - the third group object to economically useful capital on the grounds of a shortage of electricity and housing

The insanity of London politics at its finest - planning application for a data centre needed by the City of London, blocked because locals think "affordable housing" (i.e. council housing) is a bigger priority. 12% of UK tax receipts come from the finance industry btw.

Turns out we're in an alliance with the Islamic Republic of Japan!

When you’ve spent too long playing Hearts of Iron IV.

@yuanyi_z This is your brain on the Harvard LLM.

This is even worse! You think we should be honouring the memory of someone whom you sentenced to life imprisonment for murder? x.com/DavidLammy/sta…

This makes no sense. A free pardon washes away the moral stigma of that conviction; but a posthumous commutation of sentence to life imprisonment is just plain goofy.