Dr Julie Doughty
@juliedoughty.bsky.social
lawyer (retired solicitor; academic). Live in Wales now, although still Australian. Child law; media law. Legal blogger in family courts for The Transparency Project www.transparencyproject.org.uk (contact me there as I don't receive DMs on Bluesky)
Dear tv and radio producers. Thankyou for the invitation. But, no, I do not want to appear on your show to defend the idea that I am English, after 50 years of living and working here, because the increasingly feral right want to turn this into a "debate" and you cannot see how you're being played
You’d have to be in thrall to the narrowest, most blinkered model of economics to believe that axeing Free Thinking and Thinking Allowed made sense. The amount of goodwill programmes like this earn from the BBC’s core supporters is way out of proportion to the pennies they cost to make.
I just don't understand the cuts to radio. It's so CHEAP compared to TV! Performers are paid less, no worry about fancy studios and the backup staff, but it's vital to so many people (see local radio cuts too). They're like kids on a young enterprise scheme, showing off to the teacher
BBC News - 'Dad dragged me out of bed by my hair to work' - rural abuse victims want more support www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Important reporting by Gemma Dunstan, BBC Wales
Powys farmer says abuse from dad was 'torture' and wants more support
Tracy Lewis says she loved growing up on a farm but that the abuse from her father was terrifying.
bbc.co.uk
Twenty years ago, on October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya was murdered by Putin’s henchmen. She had warned about the true nature of the russian regime and urged that it not be allowed to continue until it was too late. Western leaders chose to listen to the appeasers—or succumbed to corruption.
why had I previously been under the impression schools in France were good?
The emotion-prompting loss of Jeffrey Archer has reminded me of the ancient Chinese curse - May your Wikipedia entry have many unusual subsections.
Trying to remember the precise arrangement of details in a piece I read decades ago about how Jeffrey Archer’s agent, or editor, or possibly even wife Mary, helped him with his work by “translating his books into English.”
Krishnan Guru-Murthy, "How long do you think its going to take for people to forget you ran the country for 14 years?" Helen Whateley, "Kemi has published an essay called The Right Way, really thinking about what's gone wrong with the country" 14 years of Tory austerity 🤷♀️
my dad was at school with 'Bobby' Helpmann in Broken Hill, a talented ballet dancer (The Red Shoes). Bit sad he if is remembered only as the Child-catcher
Neurospooky Notions@joy-arose.bsky.social · 5d agoThat's the one. I knew if I scrolled long enough he'd be here. I was not OK after that movie
A new trade union has just been officially registered, the UK Hospitality Union It's a v under-represented part of the workplace re. unions: "Members include...baristas, hotel staff, restaurant staff, chefs, event caterers, bar staff, housekeeping." Be interesting to see how they fare
UK Hospitality Union | trade union
At the UK Hospitality Trade Union, we are the united voice for workers across the UK's hospitality sector. Our mission is simple: to advocate for fair treatment, safe working conditions, and equitable...
ukhospitalityunion.com
New Swingometer! Holborn & St Pancras By-election preview swingometer.substack.com/p/the-holbor...
The Holborn & St. Pancras By-election
Polanski’s big gamble puts Burnham’s revival to the test
swingometer.substack.com
www.theguardian.com/politics/202... pretty shocking to have stopped these vulnerable women & children from joining their refugee families in UK
Court quashes block on mothers and children in Gaza joining families in UK
Immigration court judge finds Unsafe Journeys Policy was applied unlawfully to two families
theguardian.com
Good Morning Britain host’s ‘face says it all’ during Suella Braverman interview www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv... your occasional reminder that Mrs Braverman was named after a jollier figure, Sue Ellen Ewing in Dallas
Good Morning Britain host’s ‘face says it all’ during Suella Braverman interview
A Good Morning Britain presenter was praised by viewers during the interview with the Reform UK politician.
walesonline.co.uk
‘Just like my big brothers’: boy with cerebral palsy passes GCSEs with eye-tracking technology
‘Just like my big brothers’: boy with cerebral palsy passes GCSEs with eye-tracking technology
Patrick McCabe’s herculean feat shows limits and possibilities of special educational needs and disabilities system
theguardian.com
The government and Heidi Alexander claimed over 14.5m children used a free bus scheme this August. That’s not correct. In fact, over 14.5m *journeys* were made (by far fewer children). There are only about 7.5m children of the right age in England.
Government wrong to claim over 14.5 million children used free bus scheme – Full Fact
A figure quoted by the Department for Transport and transport secretary counts journeys, not children. Only about 7.5 million children in England are the right age.
fullfact.org
just realised, lots of fuss (understandably) about dangerous men being early released from prison, but what about vulnerable women and men being turfed out en masse with no support?
when I was a student in Bristol, house shared with a chemistry student who got a job at Porton Down. His ancient car gave up one night and he abandoned it to walk to digs. Within minutes, police on our doorstep demanding to see him.
Kemi Badenoch condemned Reform's ban on critical journalists covering their conference as "authoritarian", saying her own party would never do the same as "we believe in free speech. We believe in a free press." Now the Conservatives have banned Byline Times from their conference
Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives Ban Byline Times From Conference After Condemning Reform for Journalist Ban
The ban comes just weeks after the Conservative leader called Reform's barring of critical journalists from their conference an "authoritarian" attack on the free press
bylinetimes.com
Tomo’s Money Box Live is looking at the finances of cohabitation. I would really like to hear from someone who feels it's right for them despite the reduced legal protections. So if you want to sing the praises of your unwedded bliss then please message me or email felicity.hannah@bbc.co.uk. Thanks
Nottingham today. Everywhere tomorrow. 2,700 staff put at risk. 600+ jobs targeted. At least 48 courses facing closure. What happens here sets the template for the sector. Stand with Nottingham.
NEW: ‘It’s an implicit threat’. Lord Tom Watson of Palantir writes to one of its biggest critics -Labour MP @labourlewis.bsky.social - to tell him the surveillance firm is watching him. www.thenerve.news/p/clive-lewi...
They’re saying: we’re watching you’: MP Clive Lewis reveals Tom Watson has warned him over criticising Palantir
In a letter to his former Labour colleague, the peer, who joined Peter Thiel’s AI company this month, writes: ‘You have made the case against the company more or less continuously’. By Carole Cadwalla...
thenerve.news
.. announcing a new publicly funded National Care Service without any hint where the money is *actually* coming from is ...a gamble
We will be publishing an explainer of this judgment shortly
Joshua Rozenberg@joshuarozenberg.bsky.social · last wk.Judges dealing with domestic abuse cases in the new child-focused family courts have been reminded that the welfare of the child remains paramount and that although these hearings are more investigative than before there is still a need for procedural fairness rozenberg.substack.com/p/child-focu...
www.barcouncil.org.uk/resource/tra... can more transparency in family courts help barristers make the case for an adequate legal aid system? New post by Lucy Reed KC @familoo.pinktape.co.uk
Transparency: Now can you see why it matters?
Transparency itself is now understood to encompass not just opening up the courts to the media and legal bloggers, but to a whole host of other ways of doing family justice that make the system more u...
barcouncil.org.uk
Important to remember that the debate around social care right now is about *free* care - ending the lottery of life that means some are financially ruined by care costs as they age. It is not about providing *better* care, which would require spending of another order…
