Jacob Gifford Head

50 Kalò? An excellent choice!

There's a set of index cards with policies like this in the cabinet office behind a window saying "break glass in the case of emergencies."

I have to confess to not being sure what a theatrical concert is! Is it something like doing a Midsummer Night's Dream with the Mendelssohn incidental music?

Glass of ouso.

I am very easily influenced by this sort of thing. But, to my horror, I have no pastis in my house.

So I have poured myself ouso, instead.

Yes! One brand them made them in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. I'd like one of those!

I like "Yours &c.," so I don't need to worry about this...

I have a few spoons but I’m not massively interested in collecting them since I tend to drink it dry so don’t have a use for them. I also think the glassware is a bit more interesting!

The without ice comment did sound like the idea that you should only drink a pink gin at room temperature!

Pic of a collection of the same

Yes! Seems to have gone a bit out of fashion, sadly, after the boom about 15 years ago. If I could only choose one it would be the Jade Liqueurs Esprit Edouard.

Of course the most wonderful thing about are the paraphernalia, like the glasses, decanters, drippers, saucers etc!

On reflection, I think I’ve only ever drunk Pernot and Ricard which, despite raising the obvious competition law issue, are probably not the most exciting versions of it.

I think absinthe is a better drink in most situations since it isn’t sweetened so you can have it completely or very dry. Sometimes a blanche or Swiss one, too.

No idea! Ian Brady's was Robin Makin, the son of the famous Liverpool solicitor E. Rex Makin. He has not had a happy time recently with the SRA.

Yes. Of course!

I suppose it also depends on the speed of the “original” recording which can vary a lot if it is not by a text-to-speech & what the subject it. And also the complexity of the underlying text. I’ve had to keep some non-fiction books at much slower speeds than fiction to avoid missing important parts.

It shouldn't need saying but I think we stopped desecrating the bodies of dead criminals in the 1830s when dissection and then hanging in chains by court order were abolished... Lawful & decent burial (or cremation) shouldn't be contentious!

It's a pity this one wasn't tried by Zacaroli J who I feel wouldn't have needed to resort to Wikipedia to describe the Berlioz...

There are also common law and statutory duties for this to happen. For example:

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/2...

Incidentally, if you have any interest in the difficult area of law concerning the disposal of the bodies of serious criminals, you may be interested in how Vox Ch dealt with the case about the body of Ian Brady:

www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWH...

Yes. I think that is fair. And when it comes to allocation of cases to judges, I think it also fair to say that whilst there is no reason to believe there is a problem at the moment, we do not have any formal safeguards in place to stop it being carried out for ulterior motives.

Report of the National Cremation Investigation by Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC Investigation findings and recommendations following an investigation across crematoria in Scotland who did not routinely return ashes to families following the

If you have the stomach, from memory the Scottish inquiry into cremation explored quite a lot of these sorts of issues. Though it may be one of those things that it is better not to know about.

www.gov.scot/publications...

If he was killed as a result of the state’s breach of its duties to keep him safe from other dangerous prisoners, his estate would be entitled, I would have thought, for reasonable costs of a funeral under private law principles (and not just the costs of the cheapest disposal of the body possible.)

The other one is that despite the aim to move the Law Lords out of the House of Lords and the Lord Chancellor from the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice is given a seat in the legislature on appointment!

... sympathetic to the establishment since that seems to have happened on at least one occasion. And, of course, in that example, there wasn’t really a bright line between the government and the courts since the finding against the government related to the administration of the courts.

Yes. I am sure that is all correct as is demonstrated by the many cases where the courts find against the government in serious matters. I just think that we shouldn’t be complacent in saying that there is no possibility that a case couldn’t be reallocated to a Judge who was thought to be more ...

A few caveats: I don't think this is a general problem. I don't know if it was government or senior judiciary pressure. I am taking his account at face value.

This sticks in my mind because it is so unusual.

Judge blasts MoJ's 'systemic failure' over Crown court backlog Ruling over teenager held in prison for 321 days awaiting trial.

I can think of one example since I started at the bar: HHJ Raynor at Woolwich being removed from hearing custody time limit cases during COVID since it was known he took the view that the measures to keep courts going were inadequate.

I would forgive them for adding a trombone emoji in the place of a more interesting instrument, if the trombone depicted was Adolphe Sax's trombone with seven bells and six valves which inexplicably never became as popular as the saxophone and saxhorn.

I wouldn't mind so much if everyone writing about "beer" in this period (which is basically everyone interested in its history) knew that the beer was unhopped! But I think most people have no idea when it was domesticated

The importance of a good globe to a law library is often underrated.

My first degree is in Mesopotamian history and archaeology. It still annoys me that everyone talks about Mesopotamian "beer" rather than "ale" since we are talking about a period long before the domestication of hops!