Director of Legal & Prof Services UNISON. Wins the odd case. Proud dad of twins. Son. Lawyer.
#thelawyerhot100
2018. Mostly nice, bites if provoked. RT≠my views
My daughter works for a restaurant & was today told that she would have her wages deducted as a table of customers left without paying.
It is an absolute nonsense
I will not tell you the name of the restaurant unless they carry out the threat. Then I will & they will regret it.
My mum died earlier today so I will not be here for a while.
So many people have sent their best wishes over the past week since we were told mum was coming to the end of her journey. Thank you. X
Occasionally you do a tweet about someone being mistreated (and even more occasionally it’s about someone close to you) and you are reminded very quickly that there are huge numbers of people out there who are decent, kind and who hate injustice as much as you do.
A drawing that my 14 year old daughter E did tonight as she didn’t feel up to swim training. This photo doesn’t really do justice to the haunting beauty of this piece. I wish I had talent like this. I hope you like it. She doesn’t. Go figure.
2 minutes and 16 seconds to demonstrate a complete absence of factual knowledge about anything. People have been listening to how
@mrjamesob
directly questions people and have taken it onboard.
I interviewed the Brexit candidate in Peterborough before polls closed yday.
It did not take much more than a basic level of scrutiny to expose his rhetoric for what it is - scaremongering.
You listen to Marcus Rashford talk on the BBC news and then immediately after you listen to Boris Johnson. And you can see how a expensively educated posh boy will never be a tenth as eloquent as a fine young man from Wythenshawe.
It’s not common for me to retweet conservative politicians but Mr Ellwood bravely tried to save PC Palmer. He is to be commended for his selflessness when in danger and entitled to be outraged by this. As any right thinking person should be.
It’s impossible to thank personally everyone who has commented on or RTd my tweet of last night but I wouldn’t like people to think that my daughter & I don’t appreciate it.
Whether this is widespread or not it is pants and I will do whatever I can about it on behalf of others.
I never thought I would live in a time where fake news was accepted as real, where bizarre stuff with no factual basis was accepted as real, where people quite simply made stuff up & large numbers of people accepted it as real. How can we come so far & yet get more stupid?
Dear fellow lawyers I haven’t learnt much but I have learnt that you should be generous to your opponents in litigation. You never know when you will need the generosity returned. We are all just doing our job to the best of our ability. It’s not personal. Don’t be an asshole.
If you see racist tweets directed at the three players who missed penalties call them out and report them.
Nasty racist b*stards will do everything they can to cause division.
The Attorney General is pregnant. Under current rules she would be required to resign as a government minister. The government is changing the rules so she can stay on.
Quite right. Equal rights do not depend on a person’s politics.
As I had an urgent referral I had my blood sample taken for testing first thing this morning. But that’s not the point of this tweet.
The phlebotomist was lovely.
She told me she’s had her hours cut.
Then she told me she was referred to a food bank last week.
An NHS worker.
I’ve now read the Gray report.
There are in my opinion some key paragraphs that have made me think two things:
1) She is really really clever
2) Johnson is in a great deal of difficulty
Although I am not yet the definition of glowing good health I got my all clear just now.
I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t a teensy bit emotional.
People have been super sweet to me for some months. Thank you. x
Watched some Tory MP I’ve never heard of going on about the Human Rights Act cat on Politics Live. A made up story debunked by
@BarristerSecret
a very long time ago. Not challenged by the interviewer.
Fake news seems to rule the world.
After 5 months of on/off illness & severe pain I finally have a pretty clear diagnosis of what is wrong & what I need to do going forward.
It is reassuring news. I am very lucky. The symptoms could have been the end of me. But they are not. Maybe something has watched over me.
Apparently a way cannot be found to prosecute people who drive a car through the streets of London proclaiming “Fuck the Jews, rape their daughters.”
You know something, a person might begin to form the view that
#jewsdontcount
@Baddiel
Apparently there’s a big fuss about words in Roald Dahl ‘s works of fiction being changed.
Perhaps I could help people focus on some of his real life words.
Here’s Dahl on Jews:
“Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t pick on them for no reason”.
He was a repulsive antisemite.
I am so fed up of tweeting about antisemitism to a wall of ambivalence (apart from honourable exceptions- I know and they know who they are). And people wonder why we don’t feel safe here.
Yesterday was a very difficult day.
I received news from Glasgow on our daughters’ birthday that my mum was reaching the end of her life. I did what mum would have wanted and let them enjoy their day.
But today if you’re a person who prays might you offer one for my mum.
If you are a person who asks why should care workers be paid at least the national minimum hourly wage for performing contractually obliged sleep over duties “because they are asleep” there’s a more than reasonable chance that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Tonight we must think of Archie Battersbee and his family. His parents are losing their 12 year old son. It is the thing any parent fears the most. I cannot imagine their pain.
Stereo pearl bracelets. A pearl necklace. Sunnies on top of head.
Totally the look Jewish women forced to wear stars of David were rocking as they were shipped off on trains to be gassed to death in concentration camps.
It’s going to take me a while to get past my anger.
Dear fellow solicitors/barristers,
If you want to reverse the decision of a court/tribunal in a case you were involved in, can I respectfully suggest you do it by appealing to a court/tribunal, not social media.
This is Topsy. He’s been gone for 24 hours. He’s quite shy. If you live in the area close to Alexandra Palace station would you look in your sheds or if he’s staying with you please let him come home.
From sunset this evening for 2 days, it is Rosh Hashanah, New Year for Jewish people.
I wish you a year where people of all faiths & none join together to find a way to live in peace, love & understanding for each other, where our similarities always override our differences. X
Got a copy of a letter addressed to someone referred to me for advice yesterday. Nothing makes me more determined to crush a litigant into utter career oblivion than a pathetic, bullying, hostile & arrogant set of threats designed to terrify a lay person from a bunch of no marks.
Do you know what happened only 81 years ago today?
Ok I’ll tell you.
Something called Kristallnacht.
Do you know what it was?
Do you know what it represented?
Do you care?
It’s the sixth night of Chanukah.
Like very many people we are all so saddened by the awful murder of little Arthur. So tonight we have lit an extra candle that you can see at the far left. It is in his memory and a message of love that he was deprived of in life ❤️
I am not ashamed to tell you that listening to this has made me weep.
So many awful things but the sound in my head of a little 6 year old saying “nobody loves me” is unbearable.
I think I need to make it clear that I live in the UK not the USA. But the many replies from the USA and Canada about practices and laws in and relating to the restaurant industry there have been really interesting and informative.
What I need right now is a group of boys hassling and scaring my daughter who is walking home from her friend’s house.
Maybe parents of boys could try to bring them up not to hassle women and grab them.
I will see you boys down the line. We know where it was. CCTV
Ridiculously proud that our twin girls have both been offered places to pursue their chosen A levels at the most excellent Woodhouse College here in sunny North London. Bursting if I’m honest. xx
I love barristers. I’m proud to say that many are really good, honourable and beloved friends. The vast majority are super bright, balanced and entitled to air their views just like us mere mortals. But honestly occasionally I wish they’d ******* get over themselves.
It’s my privilege to have the chance to try to help
@unisontheunion
members, those of other unions and working people alongside a lot of colleagues who are not mentioned here.
UNISON
@unisontheunion
has today written to the government warning it will legally challenge plans to use agency workers to break strikes.
@cmcanea
I’m a placid sort but the photos of the food being delivered as part of
#FreeSchoolMeals
have made me really angry. The message they give feels to me like they are telling people they are worthless so they should be grateful to get this pitiful supply. Also makes me feel ashamed.
I occasionally tweet my daughter E’s art for people to see. Here are some old ones- she was 12 when she did the first one here. She’s doing her gcse mocks atm so I hope seeing these will help. Feel free to ❤️ them!
As I kiss my beautiful, talented Jewish daughters goodnight I try to imagine the terror, the horror experienced by people like us living in Germany 81 years ago tonight as the Nazis initiated their plan to make every Jew disappear. And of course I simply cannot.
Never again.
I’m not allowed to tell you which but my gloriously talented and clever daughter L, got an offer to join the 6th form of one of the best schools in the country.
May I just say that being cleverer than me and her mum put together was not the plan at all. Comp education does work
I am really pleased to say that UNISON has been granted permission by the Supreme Court to appeal the case of Tomlinson Blake v Mencap, the case concerning payment for care workers for sleep ins.
#ukemplaw
@unisontweets
I am sometimes too oblique when I tweet. So heres a clear one.
They will be carrying me out on a plank before I give up on the idea that people should not be deprived of the ability to fight for access justice by an overbearing govt that thinks it can govern without restraint.
🚨🚨🚨 EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL FEES KLAXON - Lord Faulks, chair of the Judicial Review inquiry, gives a clear steer that in his view next time the government seeks to impose ET fees it should not even be open to challenge by judicial review.
#ukemplaw
The last year has been one of the most difficult of my life for multiple reasons. I will come through it but slightly singed.
I feel on the way there. Never ever give up.
In the meantime Shana Tovah. Happy new year to all my Jewish and non Jewish friends x
May you be happy X
I can only hope that people that are Muslims, Christians and Jews and any other minority that is othered will gather together to fight the forces of hate and not fight each other.
Fighting each other is what the b******s want
Kyrgios should not be allowed to behave the way he does on court. Whether deliberate or not it would put most opponents off. I’d warn him twice. Then throw him out, final or not.
I am so grateful to the NHS for the empathy, skill & care I have experienced this week especially my GP who has pulled out all the stops having taken one look at me.
It’s not clear what’s up yet but trust me when it comes to the NHS you won’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.
Just paid this term’s rent for both our daughters’ university accommodation.
You can find me outside Kings Cross station all week playing three chords and wailing, I mean singing, well you couldn’t really call it that.
Give generously.
If someone who is coming to a funeral at which quite a lot of older people will attend says they don’t believe in vaccinations and haven’t had one, is it reasonable to say fine but please self test for Covid or don’t come?
Congratulations to our incredible, challenging, loved, hardworking twin daughters L & E who have a clean sweep of As in old money in their GCSEs across the academic curriculum.
I know one thing- I never had to face what they have and am far from sure I could have achieved this.
A high calibre lawyer releases an excoriating report into antisemitism in the National Union Of Students.
Is Twitter trending with tweets supporting the brave Jewish students who fought this endless battle?
No.
I kind of feel as though
#jewsdontcount
@Baddiel
Good morning. It’s my birthday with a 0 on the end today and of course like anyone who has had a celebration in these times it’s a bit weird. But I’m allowing myself two wishes: that we find a C19 vaccine v soon and that post 1/1/2021 we are a happy, secure, well fed nation. X
If you’ve never experienced or helped someone experiencing workplace bullying you are lucky. But I can tell you that it is insidious, it affects everything that a person is and their every waking moment, their family life. It takes over everything. It is awful.
So now you know.
Hi, I hope you have a happy weekend surrounded by people you love & who love you
Apart from that all I would ask of you is that you consider that much of what you read on this medium is not true, that it’s designed to dislocate truth, to propagate discord, that it has an agenda.
Our daughters got sent home yesterday.
They will have to isolate on Saturday, their 16th birthdays.
They were due to collect their mock GCSE results today and have been anxious all day.
We have just received them. They are outstanding.
We are so proud of their resilience.
I don’t suppose there’s any chance that when I wake up from general anaesthetic tomorrow there will be a Bobby Ewing in the shower moment and the past two and a half years will just have been a crappy night’s sleep?
Thank you to people who’ve sent me best wishes of late. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.
I am pretty much pain free tonight. I had forgotten what it felt like. Long may it last. x
If you go to Auschwitz, and I hope you do, please don’t treat it as a day out at Disney, take smiling or any other selfies then double down when people point out how poor your behaviour is. If you are ever there and see someone doing this please tell them just to stop. Just stop.
Well, we’ve done it.
One child safely landed at one university yesterday and the other at a different university today. Both parents in the same place tonight.
Maybe the most physically challenging 2 days we’ve had as twin parents but you know 2 of the proudest too.
xx L & E.
Lawyers on twitter: some of us come on here to do serious law. Some of us come on here as a retreat from serious law. Some of us do both. I’m more the second than anything else. That’s my choice. Attack me/friends on here & I’ll be delighted to demonstrate my prowess at the first
I’ve been waiting for some final medical results to see what went seriously wrong with my health a couple of months ago.
The answer today is that whilst they don’t know yet what it is/was they do know what it is not.
So it looks as though I am going to be ok. I’ll take it.
I’ve come back on here briefly to thank you for all the good wishes after my mum’s death today. I’ve been overwhelmed by them both emotionally and numerically during today and I cannot hope to thank everyone personally. X
Life is a rollercoaster.
C’s mum, our girls’ nanny, died this morning.
She had been living with Alzheimer’s for many years. It started in her 50s. A disease cruel beyond description.
A primary school teacher. A dear soul. You’d have liked her. I did.
RIP Marion xxx
@Poppy__McGrath
There really are very few who don’t have bumps in the road in life at some point. Yours is happening now. Mine happened later. Given your openness about this my money is firmly on you prevailing. I’ve got everything crossed for you.
It’s the first night of Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights.
I make no secret about my scepticism concerning a supreme being but if you’ve been here before you’ll know how important being Jewish is to me.
All festivals of light are reason to celebrate. Welcome to ours.
I had good medical news this week. Surgery successful though one bit will take nine more months to get dealt with. Bit of a pain but what the hey. And the other stuff all ok. So I will be fighting fit and kicking around for quite a bit I hope. You’re not getting rid of me yet.
Well done to all who got through the whole 2023 A level process. It was horrible.
Our girls, who have worked hard every day of their school lives got fantastic results and will go their first choices of university.
To those who didn’t, you can overcome this. x
The loss of your partner of 73 years must be unbearable.
As we Jewish people say on these occasions I wish the Queen long life. May his memory be a blessing to her and his family.
I can scarcely believe I have to say this in 2021 but here goes:
I’m Jewish
It’s what I am.
I’m not religious.
I’m culturally, ethnically, racially Jewish.
I’ve been discriminated against multiple times in my life.
I’m an ethnic minority.
I’m many other things too.
It is just over a week since my mother died.
I have, in my way, been doing what Jewish people do: remembering her, grieving, assessing her life & mine, removed myself quite a bit from the world, been mostly at home, thought about stuff I’ve got wrong. I’m sad. I’ll get better.
Please please please look into stuff. Don’t believe the first thing you’re told. Be inquisitive. Challenging. Ask why the person/bot saying what is said is saying it. Who are they supporting? Why? Who gains? What’s the agenda? Where does it lead humanity? Be open. Lies are real.
May and June 2022 have been a bit of a health low point for me. I’m still awaiting more tests to work out what the flip is wrong with me but the good news is that the results I got yesterday are much less worrying than I’d anticipated they might be.
I’m still kicking. x
If a student going to Leeds University, an excellent place, asked my advice whether to take the offer of £10,000 and rent paid for 1st year in order to defer until 2022 I would tell them without hesitation to take the gap year.
I know I shouldn’t but sometimes karma…
Driving to Stratford bloke undertakes us doing nearly 100 & does lanes 3 to 1 in a nano second. 10 secs later another car does the same. We think they’re racing.
Go another mile, second car is unmarked cop car. Has nabbed first car. 🤣😂
I’m not a good Jew. I’m not a regular attender at synagogue. I don’t have a whole heap of time for God. But that doesn’t matter does it? There are people out there who think he’s a Jew, a liar, an outsider, not loyal to the UK, a parasite.
Never felt more Jewish than I do today.
This morning the Home Secretary tweeted comments that clearly concern an active court case. I am not reproducing her tweets here.
I am not a criminal lawyer but this appears to cross a threshold. She should be sacked and prosecuted for contempt of court.
Lots of commentators who wish the
@Conservatives
nothing but ill are now presuming to tell us whom to elect as our leader. Thanks, guys, but we’ll decide that for ourselves.
My mum died a year ago today.
Like most people I’m still processing it but I’m trying to be chipper and not maudlin today.
So I’m off out for a walk with the people in the world who mean the most to me. x