I'm sympathetic to the plight of Brian Myerson (to the extent that I'm capable of being sympathetic to an individual whose wealth was once so great). He and his soon to be ex-wife agreed that he would transfer to her by installments a sufficient amount of his property and the value of his shares that she would end up with 43% of their combined ( Read more... )

So the government is on a drive to promote social mobility, with particular focus on apparently "elitist" professions. I'm in favour of this in principle. In some cases, the statistical bias towards those who are privately educated means that the profession in question cannot possibly reflect the diversity of the available raw talent ( Read more... )

There has been an angry reaction to a government-backed report, which effectively concluded that family courts were not biased against non-resident parents (usually fathers) on the whole. There are indeed problems with drawing this conclusion from the fact that most NRPs are successful with their contact applications, and that only 10% of cases ( Read more... )

There are proposals to remove the bar on Catholics from succeeding to the throne. A first-born daughter would also be allowed to succeed in preference to a second-born male, among other things ( Read more... )

Did anyone else notice that Bryn Terfel's jacket had an Irish tricolour on the sleeve, but the Cross of St Patrick was nowhere to be seen? Controversial!

The University of Cambridge has announced that it will stop using the Law National Admissions Test after this year's application process (for 2009 or deferred 2010 entry). It says that:...the numerical scores awarded to applicants in the multiple-choice section of the test do not provide sufficiently distinctive and useful information within the ( Read more... )

So Sarah Palin has a 17-year-old daughter who's pregnant and unmarried. I agree that this is a private matter and it's been good to see people from across the political spectrum emphasising that ( Read more... )

Overall, I'm very disappointed with Lord Carey's comments on the Mosley case in today's News of the World. (If I'm honest, I'm disappointed by the fact that he has chosen to write in that particular publication at all, albeit suprisingly briefly. But I suppose he has to find a way to reach people ( Read more... )

The government is to fund a board of Islamic scholars, to be hosted by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, who will debate "critical issues affecting Muslims in the UK ( Read more... )

I don't wish to speculate on who killed Robert McCartney, who else may have been involved or why few witnesses have come forward. Nevertheless, I was struck by the reaction of Mr McCartney's sister, Catherine, after the murder trial. While admitting that she was "very disappointed" about the acquittal of the main suspect in the case last week, she ( Read more... )