Damian Green: What are the Legal and Constitutional Implications?
Amongst all the excitement and speculation about the story, there was an interesting and sober conversation about the possible legal and constitutional implications of the arrest of Damian Green MP and the process of the search of his House of Commons office on the Insite Law Magazine podcast:
Today I am talking to Carl Gardner, a barrister, ex government lawyer and author of The Head of Legal blog about the extraordinary arrest by Police of shadow frontbench spokesman on Immigration, Damien Green MP.
Click through on the title to listen.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Sherlock Holmes and Dr Joseph Bell
This is a 1 minute snippet of Sir Arthut Conan Doyle talking about how Dr Joseph Bell was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. He notes that various real police forces adopted the “Holmes” method. Via Dr Grumble:
The recording is a bit stilted and there is only a hint of the admiration and gratitude Sir Arthur showed for his teacher, Dr Bell, without whom there may never have been a Sherlock Holmes.
Click through on the title for the audio segment.
Jonathon Ross / Russell Brand / Andrew Sachs Round III: Radio 4 Feedback Audio Segment
Feedback on Radio 4 carried a fairly balanced discussion about the Russell Brand / Bill Brewer / Peter Gurney / Andrew Sachs / Peter Davy / Jonathon Ross / Dan’l Whiddon / Daily Mail / Harry Hawke / Lesley Douglas / Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all / BBC / Jan Stewer scrummage.
The segment is quite long - 20 minutes, but it covers most of the different aspects and contains most viewpoints.
Click through on the title for the audio segment.
Jonathon Ross, Russell Brand, Andrew Sachs and an Obscene Phone Call from the BBC
There’s been a lot of comment on the Russell Brand / Jonathon Ross Obscene / Prank phone call to Andrew Sachs farrago, such that I’m reluctant to add to the pile.
However … I have one or two things that may be useful, such as a spliced audio recording and some information about the growth of the resulting fuss.
Imams’ Response to Physical and Sexual abuse of Women: Radio 4 Today Item
There was a short item on the Radio 4 Today Programme this morning about sexual abuse in Mosques. Here is the audio snippet (6 minutes). Click through on the title if you cannot see the Audio Player.
There has been some work in this area, notably by the UK Muslim Parliament (which is a totally reformed organisation from the one that was camapigning under the leadership of Dr Kalim Siddiqui for a “separate Islamic legal space” back in the 1990s). It is now lead by Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui (no relation), and takes a co-operative rather than confrontational approach.
They were working on a project looking at Child Protection in Faith Based Environments (PDF) more than a year ago, which is worth a look.
Caernarfon: The Heartland of Plaid Cymru - Radio Snippet
This morning I listened to a few minutes of a programme on BBC Radio 4 about the Caernarfon area - the stronghold of Plaid Cymru.
The point that I found most interesting was that the support base is built around a framework of social networks in the community. That’s obvious, but it’s fascinating to hear interviews with the people who created and comprise the network.
Click through on the title for the audio segment.
Tom Harris MP Exit Interview: Spending More Time with his Blog
In last week’s Britblog Roundup I covered the story that Tom Harris MP, the Rail Minister, had been shown the exit door in Gordon Brown’s reshuffle.
Tom gave a superb interview to BBC Today in Parliament yesterday (10 October).
The interview went out at 11:50pm on a Friday, so it was easy to miss and I thought I’d post the item here. It is about 10 minutes long.
Click through on the title for the interview.
