John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 22/09/2026In Gibraltar as part of a @middletemple.bsky.social Amity visit. 031
Reposted by John de Waal KCIan Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Lots of talk of growth ahead of the Budget, as if it were a baroque puzzle. Our problem is basic. It's that we no longer support the things which facilitate growth: Europe, immigration, higher education, tax simplification, policy stability. These are all choices and could stop making them anytime. 591608422
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Every lawyer should read @johnhyde.bsky.social’s compelling book on the Post Office scandal. 041
Reposted by John de Waal KCSean Jones KC @seanjones.org · 05/09/2026I’m flat out begging politicians to stop trying to win votes with a little light xenophobia. All you do is feed the racists without ever satiating them. Stop legitimizing hate 931565
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Who will decide whether a politician has lied and what will the sanction be? 040
Reposted by John de Waal KCDavid Aaronovitch @davidsonofaaron.bsky.social · 15/08/2026A short free post davidaaronovitch.substack.com/p/icarus-fal...davidaaronovitch.substack.comIcarus fallingA further thought on the tragic Arday affair 115713
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Out of interest, alert didn’t reach my uk mobile abroad - how does that work? 111
Reposted by John de Waal KCProf Neil Martin @thatneilmartin.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Jack Grove on his THES/Arday story. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/i-wa...timeshighereducation.comI was reported to police over Arday case. I was just doing my jobMy investigation into alleged plagiarism was undertaken seriously – journalistic enquiries should not be a matter for Scotland Yard, writes THE journalist Jack Grove 146
Reposted by John de Waal KCSunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 05/08/2026The judge's sentencing remarks said it would be difficult to imagine a more serious case of racially aggravated harassment bsky.app/profile/thea... 15114
Reposted by John de Waal KCTanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 20/07/2026Unless this “honesty” involves the recognition that immigrants are *not* the root cause of the UK’s problems *but* actually a part of the solution to them, this will be completely pointless. I cannot stress this enough. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...theguardian.comBurnham to say UK must be honest about its challenges as he prepares to become PMLabour leader will visit king to accept role on Monday and will start making cabinet appointments that afternoon 592057656
Reposted by John de Waal KCDavid Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Could summarise this article as Don't Look Back in Anger, or at the very least don't treat this as the basis for a political programme. But this is where US and European politics is, arguing over which imaginary past is superior. Is Burnham really there? Too early to tell. 2299
Reposted by John de Waal KCMark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 15/07/2026It’s one of the great ironies that people across the world who’ve spent years and years whipping up hate and dividing countries are now complaining that people hate them. 421390340
Reposted by John de Waal KCOtto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 07/07/2026Just imagining a scenario where England won the world cup and Count Binface won the Clacton by election... 1281981204
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 03/07/2026View from where I have been mediating today. 010
Reposted by John de Waal KCSarah Owen MP @sarahowen.org.uk · 01/07/2026Ben Cullen, a leading figure of the "Raise the Colours" campaign, will stand trial for three separate charges regarding a total of 78 indecent images of children. I have only seen this covered in local newspapers, so far. Grim as it is, it needs wider coverage www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/2624087... 861309894
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 22/05/2026My pet hate: lawyers who post articles on LinkedIn about cases without posting *a link to the judgment*. 150
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 14/05/2026Leyton by-election 1965. Patrick Gordon Walker. Just saying… 3286
Reposted by John de Waal KCStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 05/05/2026Today’s newsletter: the United Kingdom doesn’t have the antiracism movement that its politicians, or much of the British Jewish community, thinks it does:ft.comAnti-racism movement is not ‘muted’ — it has been left to shrinkInstead of asking more from depleted groups, Westminster should focus on how to rebuild and better resource them 2525181
Reposted by John de Waal KCMr RobertBob @mrrobertbob.bsky.social · 30/04/2026Farage (like Trump) gives people permission to blame others for their own failures and dissatisfaction with life. Racism, homophobia, sexism etc become patches to cover their own sadness. Right wing politics are a cancer hiding behind a mask of change. 0215
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 12/04/2026Coincidentally, I received a letter from HMRC last month with a demand for £91 underpaid in January, so hard agree. 020
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 03/04/2026Good morning from the south coast of Sri Lanka. 010
Reposted by John de Waal KCAlex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 05/03/2026I wonder if on one of the Indian channels some middle-aged comedian is being sent around Britain, getting the Thameslink to St Albans, sampling pey wet in Wigan, poignantly observing that there are homeless folk on the streets even in Knightsbridge, and so forth bsky.app/profile/jack... 2020441
Reposted by John de Waal KCLewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 03/03/2026What they’re basically saying is that Starmer and the UK isn’t allowed to operate an even moderately independent foreign policy outside of the United States. That is both ahistoric, wrong and weird for people who constantly tell us how sovereignty is what matters most. 33823168
Reposted by John de Waal KCThe Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 01/03/2026“We cannot say that the United States’ actions are against international law, but we condemn Iran’s retaliatory actions as against international law,” is neither a coherent nor a compelling position. 282105624
Reposted by John de Waal KCMark @peelacres.bsky.social · 27/02/2026Best analysis I have read yet. 17817
Reposted by John de Waal KCRoland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 22/02/2026Illegal migrant in small boat stopped from entering sovereign territory without a permit. 761413415
Reposted by John de Waal KCThomas de Waal @tomdewaal.bsky.social · 17/02/2026This piece by my Berlin colleague Alexandra Prokopenko is essential reading on Russia. The Russian economy is in a slow death spiral, bankrupting itself on fuelling the Ukraine war--and yet the leadership is not changing course, as it believes everyone else is also failing. 152
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 12/02/2026I’m on for it. Let’s *have* the debate. Let’s reason it out. 000
Reposted by John de Waal KCRuss Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 12/02/2026Jim Radcliffe pissed me off, so I wrote this about the inconvenient truth of migration. tl:dr - no, just fucking read it. Some basic mathematics - you know, COUNTING THINGS - might make you reconsider, you stupid twats. (I'm not trying to make friends) open.substack.com/pub/russinch...open.substack.comThe Indisputable Maths of MigrationHow Demography, Not Dinghies, Will Decide Britain’s Future 35407163
Reposted by John de Waal KCAlan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 11/02/2026It makes you wonder whether the whole ‘war on woke’ over the last few years was waged just so that men like Ratcliffe could be disgustingly racist again without any accountability. PM tells Sir Jim Ratcliffe to apologise for saying UK 'colonised by immigrants' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukPM tells Sir Jim Ratcliffe to apologise for saying UK 'colonised by immigrants'Sir Keir Starmer said comments by the businessman and Manchester United co-owner were 1215131
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 04/02/2026I visited this cemetery some years ago whilst working in Gaza. It was a place of peace in a troubled area. Sorry to read of this. 012
Reposted by John de Waal KCdeadmanrunning1.bsky.social @deadmanrunning1.bsky.social · 01/02/2026 07813
Reposted by John de Waal KCJen aka Grantifa 🐸 @grantifa9.bsky.social · 28/01/2026At this point if I was abducted by aliens 👽🛸I would consider it a rescue mission. 1503453465
John de Waal KC @johndewaalkc.bsky.social · 25/01/2026Greetings from the hard shoulder of the M40 where I have hit debris in the carriageway, the car is undriveable and the RAC won’t help me because ‘it’s not a mechanical failure’. 230
Reposted by John de Waal KCGlen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 21/01/2026As I get older and analyse politics in more psychological terms, I see the far right for what it is: the preserve of older men who mourn and resent their loss of useful knowledge and status. They hate the people who've 'replaced' them - the young, women, people of colour - and seek revenge on them. 1213324
Reposted by John de Waal KCThomas de Waal @tomdewaal.bsky.social · 20/01/2026It's not the Monroe Doctrine 2.0, it's the “Gone-Rogue Doctrine.” My column today for @carnegieeurope.bsky.social on Trump's Greenland gambit as performative imperialism, why “sphere of influence” politics doesn’t work any more and Europe's choices. carnegieendowment.org/europe/strat...carnegieendowment.orgEurope Faces the Gone-Rogue DoctrineThe hyper-personalized new version of global sphere-of-influence politics that Donald Trump wants will fail, as it did for Russia. But, whether it fails or not, Europe must still deal with a disruptiv... 082