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Paul Magrath writer

@maggotlaw.bsky.social
754 followers 397 following 407 posts

Freelance writer and editor. Law Reports editor at The Times. Also Transparency Project @seethrujustice.bsky.social and Courts and Tribunals Observers' Network. Currently doing MA Creative Writing at City, University of London

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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Are those floodgates I see before me?
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Yes, and slurry is what your speech becomes after too much red diesel…
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Yes, three for tea
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
After a long walk, time for tea.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Starboard!
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Colin Yeo @colinyeo.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Great news that Justin Bates KC will be trying to keep the Nearly Legal housing law blog going despite the very sad death of its founder, Giles Peaker. Justin needs help, though. If you are into housing law, take a look: nearlylegal.co.uk/2026/08/tech...
nearlylegal.co.uk
Technical difficulties and plans for the future - Nearly Legal: Housing Law News and Comment
I am sorry that the site has been down for a few days. It was nothing more complicated than missed payments to the hosting company which Giles had been unable to authorise, for obvious reasons. I want...
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Family Law News @familylaw.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/divorce...
lawgazette.co.uk
Divorce order finally made after 15 listed hearings
Case went before several judges, highlighting pressure imposed on courts by parties failing to engage properly.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I feel seen
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Why mow the lawn when you can just have fake grass?
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Maybe next time they ask if I have any allergies I should mention an intolerance for excess sodium chloride. See how they cope.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Why do so many fancy restaurants put so much salt into their food? Do their chefs taste anything? Can they taste anything?
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Thing that was someone else’s fault is now everyone else’s fault.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
It was shocking for us, for years. But we now use Zen for broadband and so far it’s been excellent.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
If you use Virgin Media, you have a service problem. The problem is their service.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Blimey www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...
bbc.co.uk
Giant iceberg turns over near Greenland's coast
Video captured by a passerby showed the moment the iceberg collapsed, creating a big wave.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
That explosion at the end of Mahler's Sixth. It's like a bomb going off at the end of a film. open.spotify.com/album/0dZSUE...
open.spotify.com
Mahler: Symphony No. 6 - Album by Gustav Mahler | Spotify
Gustav Mahler · album · 2021 · 4 songs
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Why are they sitting on a massive fur coat? In summer?
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
I loved The Goodies as a child and still have my 7” single of the Funky Gibbon. As a family treat my dad took us to a live recording of a Goodies episode in the TV studios. They did their own warm up, making jokes about each other and engaging with the audience. They were lovely.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
If they eat your wallet the tracker will enable you to Find My Fox
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Familoo (Lucy Reed) @familoo.pinktape.co.uk · 11/07/2026
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...
thebureauinvestigates.com
Family courts: new rules bar unregulated experts from giving evidence
Changes coming into effect this month will keep unregulated experts out of courts in all but exceptional cases
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idioms4idiots.bsky.social @idioms4idiots.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Are Gilbert & Sullivan headlining?
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
By any definition of the Establishment, public school educated city trader in suit and tie Nigel Farage fits it perfectly. He’s raving at the bathroom mirror.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Thanks. I see what you mean. I sympathise with idea that CCRC should really focus its limited resources on living appellants (eg Malkinson case), and the question of revisiting historic DP injustices should be by way of some sort of inquiry, rather than a court.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Amenhotep to that!
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
And the left does?
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
But is that a purely right wing concern? Or is the government being “bounced” by something a bit more nuanced?
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
What’s your point? Where’s the full citation?
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idioms4idiots.bsky.social @idioms4idiots.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Cometh the hour… cometh the [man] (or woman?)
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
I don't normally comment on ecclesiastical law, but this one was a bit special. So long, Marianne. www.iclr.co.uk/blog/comment...
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Especially @islington-council.bsky.social where I live
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Westminster tries where other councils seem to fail Dangerously parked e-bikes seized by council www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Dangerously parked e-bikes seized by Westminster Council
The bikes will be released when the operator pays a penalty for its customers' poor parking.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Open justice depends on observers and reporters transparencyproject.org.uk/finding-a-jo...
transparencyproject.org.uk
Finding a journalist to attend your family court hearing
We get many requests to The Transparency Project for one of our legal bloggers to attend court hearings and/or to suggest a journalist who can attend and report
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
This could so easily have been a parkin offence.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
I think they have the technology to enforce better behaviour but won’t use it. Bad parking for example.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
This 100% www.thetimes.com/article/432b...
thetimes.com
Reckless hire bike riders need to learn rules of the road
Rental companies must also take some responsibility for road safety and compensate victims injured by their customers
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Should Andy Burnham’s new constituency be called Makerwish, perhaps? Fulfilment not guaranteed.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Want to walk along the pavement? Too bad! #Limescale @london.gov.uk @rbkc.gov.uk
Lime bikes blocking a London sidewalk
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Starmer has performed his final u-turn
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
NO CONTEST? Burnham would come to Downingsinane without a further election. Sounds like a coup, albeit a bloodless one.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Mr Lemon says hi
Lemon in shades
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... UK police officer under criminal investigation over alleged use of AI
giftarticle.ft.com
UK police officer under criminal investigation over alleged use of AI
Derbyshire Police says officer probed over allegations of perverting the course of justice
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Are we talking about hallucinating evidence? UK police officer under criminal investigation over alleged use of AI
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The Paris Review @parisreview.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
“I did what I could, not what I ought to have. That’s what we do, writers. We don’t do what we ought. We do what we can.” —Jane Gardam
buff.ly
Jane Gardam, The Art of Fiction No. 251
“What I really believe is that there are no minor characters in life or in art.”
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Inkilterra - Isgro at the Estorick
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Though I would never use AI for creative writing, it has its uses in the law, one of which is rendering a complex fact-finding judgment simple enough for the litigants themselves to understand, particularly when they have learning difficulties. transparencyproject.org.uk/make-it-simp...
transparencyproject.org.uk
Make it simple! Make it clear! Using AI to improve clarity and understanding of a judgment
In what we think may be a first, the judgment in a recent fact-finding case was handed down with two additional versions, generated with artificial intelligence
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 12/05/2026
Guillotines on every platform in the land to deal with people who don't use headphones/people who don't stand on the right/people who don't move down the bloody carriage and platform/people who don't let passengers off the train first. Sensible policies for sensible people.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Tanks for nothing, comrade! (Or some equivalent pun must be in order. Come on the tabloids! You can do it! ) Steve Rosenberg: This year's Victory Day parade in Moscow felt very different www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Rosenberg: This year's Victory Day parade in Moscow felt very different
The BBC's Russia editor reports from a Red Square with none of the military hardware which the Kremlin normally showcases to project power internationally.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Social change has been slow in some parts of London, and some dwellings still have outside toilets.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Before Twitter and Bailii the Seven Stars behind the RCJ was where the news and gossip went round. All the journos dropped by to swap notes about the day’s judgments.
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Paul Magrath writer @maggotlaw.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
A price cap: keep it under your hat!
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