Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 02/10/2026And with apologies for the embarrassing self-regard, I am particularly pleased (i) to have been ranked in all of my core practice areas; and (ii) to have leapfrogged directly into the main categories for insolvency work! 000
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Despite last night's, er, 'technical issues' (and the accompanying deluge of messages in barrister WhatsApp groups), I am nonetheless thrilled to have been ranked by the Legal 500 for the first time, with four entries for commercial, company, insolvency and trusts/probate. 120
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 26/09/2026The page says "all-new", but the page itself must be from 2017 because of the heavy use of The Shape from that year's style guide — they could do with a refresh, I think! 010
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 25/09/2026MP Chain 🏛️ I recognised 4️⃣2️⃣ MPs in a row. How long is your chain? toys.jamesomalley.co.uk/mpchain/toys.jamesomalley.co.ukMP Chain — How many MPs can you recognise?Pick the named MP from two portraits. One wrong answer ends your chain. 020
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Constituency level data here very interesting. But, if these central projections are the right 'starting point', there is imo no way that the Lib Dems don't end up on 75-80 seats in reality given tactical voting (Brecon a great example). 000
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Hysterically sobbing and crying in disbelief that they went for “Merry Percymas” rather than “Merry Pigmas” 030
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Not content with merely presenting his primetime talkshow and RuPaul's Drag Race UK, it looks like he has decided to pivot towards running for Senate in South Carolina 110
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Nicky Spence has been absolutely terrific. What a revelation! 051
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Always love imagining what led a person to take up one of the more unusual instruments. "Shall I learn the violin, the piano, the trumpet? No. I'm going to learn the contrabassoon." 010
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 06/09/2026One of my favourite things is seeing utterly incomprehensible Tube ads. What is a ZOHO CRM? What does it mean to “grab value”, and why are “flexible” and “simple” bad? Why two adjectives and one noun? Someone in marketing did this and, to my great joy, thought, “Yes. I have nailed this.” 030
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Very strange experience — just had a video promoted in my feed showing the arrest of someone I knew quite well through the same university society. Followed it through, and he's just been convicted of attempted rape and imprisoned for six years. Bloody hell. 010
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Sad that I don't live in Holborn and St Pancras anymore — would make up for the pointless vote I cast while living at Gray's Inn during the 2019 general election! 000
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 29/08/2026An obscure academic communicates very slowly with two unexpected visitors. 010
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 27/08/2026POV: Your delicately placed googly is about to get smacked for 6 by @williamten.ch 061
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Back at the most beautiful place on the planet 141
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 21/08/2026And even more excitingly, moving-in-with- @williamten.ch -ship! 270
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Absolute loathe when in cooking videos the person nods and gesticulates with their fork at what they’ve been eating 230
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 14/08/2026I can't believe how many people are genuinely against the emergency notification being sent — I think it's a completely appropriate thing to have done given the fires across the UK! 140
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 14/08/2026It’s just horrendous, such a phenomenal drag on affordability 010
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Just paid my final set of fees/charges before completing on my flat next week, and I am now officially a member of the Stamp Duty Haters Club. What a pointless tax! 350
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 12/08/2026I have become a human pinhole camera. The Sun has chosen me. 050
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Finding the articles about "how to view the eclipse safely" infuriating — watching a tiny speck of light be occluded by shadow through a colander or in the back of a cereal box is *not the same* as watching the eclipse! 110
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 11/08/2026It has also reinforced my very strong desire to go and visit the Outer Hebrides. 000
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Finished reading John of John by Douglas Stuart last night. I can see why this is the favourite to win the Booker Prize this year — a really craggy, complex, gorgeous novel full to the brim with interesting and imperfect characters. The last third of the novel was particularly beautiful. 120
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 09/08/2026Particular howlers include the mutation system, which is not explained *at all* by Duolingo — I am lucky to know broadly how it works from Cornish, but complete novices to Celtic languages would surely find this completely bewildering 100
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 09/08/2026Learning Welsh at the moment in an effort to impress my partner's mum in Anglesey and getting so FRUSTRATED at how slow and grammar-less the Duolingo course is. Good for basic concepts but I am absolutely yearning for quicker vocab acquisition and some more explicit teaching of grammar 210
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Sorry to be immensely boring, but the Angela Hartnett/Waitrose fennel sausage ragù is absolutely unreal 000
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Heard Sam Matterface say the World Cup Final was on ITV, momentarily despaired, then saw that it is shown on the BBC too, phew 120
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 01/07/2026What confuses me is why John Terry is not only at every match but also repeatedly gets the camera lingering on him 320
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Why do we allow them so much space?! Whenever England are developing, they cannot move for blue shirts, but then Croatia have no pressure at all when they are building to an attack! 000
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Absolutely loving the darts music being used as England's goal music 000
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 15/06/2026I find it very confusing that the Belgian team is dressed as Spain. 000
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 26/05/2026(Although I should make clear that I am not saying that that is the sine qua non of a good District Judge, I just think it is at least an indication that something in the system is going a little bit awry at the moment.) 110
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 26/05/2026My view as to earnings is probably distorted by my area of practice, but I do think it is relevant (in combination with the other factors above, rather than in isolation, I think). E.g. anecdotally I can only think of 1/2 FT DJs appointed from the Lincoln's Inn Comm/Ch sets in the past 5 years. 110
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 26/05/2026You can see a person wanting to do the former for a salary cut, but recruiting people to do the opposite for what is, in many sets now, lower than a first year tenant's salary is very difficult. I suspect deputyships will become much more widespread as part of the solution. 110
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 26/05/2026I think prestige is a huge part of the picture, in different ways: the archetypal High Court case involves wrangling with clever argument from top firms and counsel, making decisions which have precedential value, all while enjoying a knighthood. The archetypal County Court case is the opposite. 120
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Also, where one of the fundamental parts of the problem is rising energy prices, how on earth does this not just become an issue at some other part of the chain instead? It's deferring the problem rather than actually dealing with the fundamentals. 010
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 19/05/2026This is absolutely barmy. We cannot have the government trying to control prices, for heaven's sake. Especially when there are several other levers to pull first, but the Treasury refuses. 220
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 18/05/2026Would be fascinated to hear — my DMs are open so drop me a line 000
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 18/05/2026Agreed it was a great piece. My read is that the problem in many boroughs is (a) over-emphasis on pre-Coalition areas of strength, often targeted because of 'residual' higher vote shares rather than looking at the party's current voter base; and (b) four-yearly all-up elections slowing things down. 050
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 18/05/2026There is no reason why the surrounds of Clapham Common/the Northcote Roads of the world should not be voting like Wimbledon/Richmond, and the Lib Dems' inability to break through there *organically* between 2016-2026 imv suggests a need to be more comfortable representing that section of voters. 3222
Harry Samuels @harrysamuels.bsky.social · 18/05/2026This example is one I've been thinking about a lot lately both because I am in Wandsworth and because it gets at what I think is the actual problem: the Lib Dems have not yet fully leant into their (newly) coherent voter base, which could expand outside "the 72" via a more tailored national message. 3161
