Best Of

Think we need to install shutters on windows, like the French.

The biggest difference between Brits when it’s sunny, and all of our southern neighbours, remains that we rush to fling the windows open and they rush to close them, and draw the curtains.

The sensible amongst us do not do that .

I'm interested that the latest RExxxx *, which is apparently a Conservative Think Tank, are maundering on about air conditioning, as part of their performative "using less energy is not something we should be concerned about" shtick. They are still trying to out-Nigel, Nigel, without noticing that back in 2021 his party were saying they were serious about tackling Net Zero, and he will turn his coat like the flim-flam man he is when necessary - and the Tories do not have that skill.

https://x.com/ClaireCoutinho/status/1943660950118175110

* Britain Remade.

One of the benefits of getting a heat pump is it can be reversed to make an air conditioner. If we are going to transition away from burning gas for heating, we're going to need the extra electricity supply anyway. Why not make it more comfortable in the summer?

The type of heat pumps which receive subsidies in the UK can't be used for air conditioning.

No surprise there's no joined-up thinking on things like this.

Ed's on the case.

Air con for your home could become part of £7.5k heat-pump grant
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/air-con-for-your-home-could-become-part-of-7-5k-heat-pump-grant-3799614

However the grant is calculated, it will be specifically designed to prevent Fairliered claiming. See also ….. all other grants.

It's a stupid proposal by Leveson.

For the reasons set out here the last time something similar was suggested - https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2020/06/24/12-good-men/

Reading the report again, it's a discussion outwith the formal scope of the review.
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/review-of-efficiency-in-criminal-proceedings-20151.pdf

He's not recommending that juries be dispensed with; rather that the issue of judge led trials be revisited (though he's clearly quite keen on the idea).
I think he's reasonably fair in setting out the arguments on both sides, and would be interested if that is, or isn't how you see it.
(Edit ... if you have the time; it's quite a long read.)

What do you make of his formal recommendations on changes to the appeals procedure from magistrates courts ?

I don't have the time this evening.

Judges and politicians are always desperate to get rid of juries and they always try to find ways of justifying this. These attempts have been going on my entire professional life and I view them as yet another example of the rulers displaying their disregard for and contempt for ordinary people and the role they ought to play in a well ordered society. See the last paragraph of my header the other day.

The fundamental problem with our criminal justice system is its persistent under-funding over decades, an absolute failure by the state to take seriously one of its core duties.

Also while I have worked professionally with Leveson and he is a nice thoughtful man, he has a tendency to come up with complicated proposals which seem to me to cause at least as many problems as they solve. See his suggestions on newspapers. He is a bit too pro-establishment de haut en bas for my tastes, which is probably why he is the go-to judge for such matters.

Anyway will revert in more detail another time. Am a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

FPT

Ye Gods. Alexa says it is going to be 32C.

I need to be in Norway ...

Currently 14C, cloudy and damp, tomorrow 16C cloudy but then sunny 19C and sunny 22C forecast for Monday! All at 68 1/4 degrees north.

Back from my walk and after lunch. It is now 29C outside and 22C inside.

We are not amused. We are however, quite well sauna'd.

So, I have arrived in Lofoten, getting off the ferry just along the road from the village with the world’s shortest place name, Å.

The dog was manic when I got back to the car, but he will live. The remaining ferries on this trip, he’ll be able to be with me, Finland and Germany being much more pet-friendly places than Norway.

Weather-wise, the cloud base is now descending and as I eat dinner looking out over the fjord, it must be down to fifty feet. But sunny days lie ahead…allegedly.

First impressions of Lofoten - it’s like Skye to the Scottish Highlands, on both upside and downside. Positively, the scenery is stunning, and compact, towering mountains, little settlements clinging to the slopes, including colourful house-huts on stilts built out into the sea, boats of all kinds everywhere. One can see why it’s a photographers’, and hikers’, paradise.

On the downside, it’s on the Rick Steves trail and clearly over-touristed, there are signs for tourist stuff everywhere, the food shops are full of foreign backpackers, and the joy of the Norwegian open road is replaced by being in a procession of traffic wherever you want to go, and with severe parking pressure when you get there. For the next week Mr Dog and I will clearly struggle to avoid the crowds.

First?

The jury will now find you guilty of insider dealing.

Oh, apparently we're abandoning them.

Not somebody I hold in high esteem, but Jacob Rees-Mogg was bang on the money when he said that juries are needed because they allow for a protection against an over mighty state.* Heck, that's how they first became enshrined in law with barons forcing King John to stop kidnapping them, stealing their lands and raping their daughters on a whim by instead having to have fair trials.

*It's worth remembering he said that in response to the release of the Colston vandals whose defence was essentially 'we're smug rich bastards and have the right to smash up anything we like.' He didn't agree with their view, ironically, or the verdict, but he thought it illustrated the importance of the jury system in showing what should or shouldn't be crimes.