As I have discussed with many generations of students, all democracies rely in the end on the belief that it is all right to lose an election. Beyond anything else that is the essential belief. Without it there is no republic.

This is a former President of the Family Division of the High Court. She knows what she is talking about. Family Judges routinely deal with what is now Court of Protection Work.

Sue Reid on her experience sitting on a jury: "Our questions to a judge saved an innocent young man's life from ruin." https://t.co/yUu3cSQNE3

Of course, medical professionals who are forced to confront the reality of #assistedsuicide - rather than the consumerist dream of controlling one's death - tend to oppose it. Palliative care doctors oppose it by 82%.

The doctors who will arrange for dying disabled people to have medical assistance to end their life will have only TWO days training. This is euthanasia on the cheap and in a rush. Dying people and disabled people deserve better.

This report on the state of palliative care was published yesterday. It’s hugely important, not least in the context of the assisted dying bill. It’s had almost no media coverage.

It’s clearly impossible for the Terminally Ill Adults Bill to proceed in the face of this level of medical opposition. Would MPs have voted for it at 3rd Reading if they had known this? I doubt it.

This is a hugely significant intervention. More UK doctors oppose assisted suicide than support it. Doctors also say that they would not be able to ensure a patient seeking an assisted suicide was not being coerced.

For research in Humanities, the shift of Anglophone academic publishing to 'Gold' open access has been, in my experience, a loss without any benefits (a reputable academic press sells as a benefit 'increased downloads' in announcing it). Will try to write about it at more length.

I’m training to become a lawyer. This is complete nonsense. The Lords’ role is to scrutinise, delay and indeed force reconsideration of Bills that they deem unfit. You’re an elected MP, Harriet. The fact you don’t understand basic constitutional law is pretty embarrassing.

Exciting news from Cambridge, where a donation has funded a permanent lectureship (“Assistant Professorship”) in the History of Knowledge Pre-1400. The only explicit restriction is “not medicine”, but it is in the Dept of History and Philosophy of Science.

Amazing. An early 17th-cent. English woman Latinist in Rudolphine Prague. There should be more collaborative student projects like this.

A note to UI designers, especially at Apple: I want transparent UI elements for doing most serious work for the same reason that I don’t write letters on tracing paper.

The select committee on the constitution of the House of Lords rejects the idea that it is not entitled to reject the Leadbeater assisted suicide bill. Lord Falconer in utter shambles.

Unsurprisingly the head of comms of @dignityindying is peddling constitutional falsehoods. This is a PMB. It's not in any manifesto. It's not been passed twice by the House of Commons in two consecutive sessions. The House of Lords has no duty to defer.

Congress ex abundanti cautela eventually retroactively confirmed things in 1953 but the real issue is trying to pinpoint down if this Act or some kind of self-execution of the enabling act's conditions did the actual admission

The great dilemma - is it really sporting to win the cricket? Especially after such an excellently close match?

I'm finding that Apple's uncanny valley fake backdrops and robotic Teleprompter readings make the WWDC videos almost impossible to watch.

“One consultant said she could foresee a time when ‘20 to 30 patients with anorexia access assisted dying in this country every year, because of the contagion effect’.” Hadley Freeman in today’s Sunday Times on the committee’s “unforgivable” rejection of anorexia safeguards:

Where do the ideas come from that formed our nation? 🇺🇲 @josh_hammer & @quilldir join us on March 10th in Miami, FL for a special event examining the influences and contributions of Jewish, Greek, and Roman cultures on the American form of government. https://t.co/gtHAYWSrJb

Broken encryption has always been a very bad idea that will put people at risk, and insisting on it will harm the UK as a place for business and cloud services. The UK government is full of experts that know this. Why does this issue keep coming up?