Tony Hatfield's Retired Ramblings

'Things must change to stay the same'. A lesson for Legal Aid lawyers

Imagine for a moment Mr Gove waking up tomorrow morning. He's met the ghost of Christmas future. He's seen good honest criminal lawyers' kids starving. Many queue at the new Lincoln's Inn food bank. Bob Cratchet QC's family are starving.... Read more →

Peter Oborne resigns

A few weeks ago,the Telegraph lost Tom Chivers and Matthew D'Ancona. Now Peter Oborne, one of the best journalists and a man of integrity, has left. Oborne explains his resignation. 'The coverage of HSBC in Britain's Daily Telegraph is a... Read more →

Don't ask don't tell be blowed.

The Stephen Green ennoblement get’s more murkier by the hour. The head of tax at HMRC, Dave Hartnett, in charge when Downing Street asked to HMRC check out Green,now tells us why he didn’t pass on information about HSBC’s involvement... Read more →

Sentencing!

Today convicted News of the World phone hackers, Neville Thirlbeck and Greg Miskiw have been released from prison. They have served 37 days of a 6 month sentence and have been released on Home Detention Curfew.This has raised the hackles... Read more →

Too Many Criminal Lawyers- Law in Action June 2010

When I was rummaging through my HDD I found this recording of 'Law In Action' going back to June 2010. Thirteen minutes in, Joshua Rozenberg interviews Des Hudson about, what was then a serious cull of Criminal Legal Aid law... Read more →

Disraeli: or The Two Lives.

In Disraeli’s novel Contarini Fleming, the eponymous hero, after being thrashed into unconsciousness on a dunghill by a school ‘chum’, leaves home and sets out on series on travels. He arrives in Venice, where he marries a distant relative. After... Read more →

Imagine Cameron Walking up Downing Street in May 2015

Turn the dial on your the time machine to May 2015. It's a spring morning and David Cameron, against all the odds, is walking up Downing Street. He's just been to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen has handed over the... Read more →

Faisal Islam describes the terrifying mortgage-by-to-let vicious circle

In his 'The Default Line-The Inside Story of People, Banks and Entire Nations on the Edge', Channel 4's ecomonics editor, comments on the UK housing market. He's how the insane British economy works. We bailed out the banks, and slashed... Read more →

Blaming Miliband for the Government's self inflicted defeat won't wash

I am getting rather brassed of. The Tories and LibDems are still intent on blaming Ed Miliband for their failure to get a majority last Thursday for the Government's first step vote over a Syrian intervention. As far as I... Read more →

Britain's Role- Sir Brian Barder

Welcome to the FCO Association Reactions to this article Britain: still looking for that role? Brian Barder’s article was first published in The Political Quarterly, volume 72, no. 3 (July/September 2001) and is reproduced here with their permission. Readers of... Read more →