deborah

Criminal barrister, based in Leeds but roving across the wonderful North Eastern Circuit 🏳️‍🌈

[deborah @dlsmithies]

@sglaisteryoung 🚮

[deborah @dlsmithies]

@TweetingYet A couple of weeks ago, I had a case which appeared twice on the list: both at 10am in one courtroom and at 2pm in the other. It was in my diary for 2pm. I DID check the list myself - for the 2pm courtroom. I didn’t spot the same case randomly appearing elsewhere on the same list!

[Dr Seth Thévoz🇺🇦(@seththevoz.bsky.social) @SAThevoz]

People often imagine that each of London's private members' clubs are bursting with vast libraries. Not true.

Many have closed down - as underused as public libraries - or been converted into conferencing rooms. Many never had a library. This🧵looks at those which survive...

[Jim Waterson @jimwaterson]

On 16 June 1983 MPs queued up to take the oath of allegiance. Newly-elected Tory MP Edward Leigh was a few places ahead of new Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.

Didn't matter until today. But that's why Leigh - and not Corbyn - is now Father of the House, with all the ceremonial roles.

[Krishnan Guru-Murthy @krishgm]

Watch this it’s fascinating - I asked James Timpson what he’d do about prisons and sentencing if he was in charge. He believes only a third of prisoners in jail should definitely be there. He’s now in charge of prisons (but not sentencing).

[deborah @dlsmithies]

@them_apples 14/1 odds on Johnson and Farage struck me as hilarious

[deborah @dlsmithies]

@them_apples I checked Betfair yesterday to see who is considered to be in the running. Not terribly inspiring. Of this lot, I’d say Atkins, Hunt, or Tugendhat?

[Chris Smyth @Smyth_Chris]

Reeves tells Treasury: "I will judge my time in office a success if I know that, at the end of it, there are working-class kids from ordinary backgrounds living richer lives, their horizons expanded, and their potential realised."

[deborah @dlsmithies]

67% voted to reject the Alternative Vote system and retain FPTP. If the pundits are now suggesting that we should revisit that 2011 referendum decision - is there a parallel to be drawn with another referendum decision that in retrospect was perhaps ill-judged..? #Election2024

[deborah @dlsmithies]

As pundit discussion turns to the apparent deficiencies of our electoral system in a new multi-party landscape, it’s weird that nobody has mentioned that we held a referendum on proportional representation in 2011. It was one of the Lib Dems’ conditions for coalition.

[deborah @dlsmithies]

@MAMBarLife So rude isn’t it?

Can I keep my party hat on? 🥳

[John Hyde @JohnHyde1982]

For those angry at the treatment of our justice system from 2010 to 2024, a word of comfort.

Not a single one of the 10 justice secretaries from that period is still an MP.

[deborah @dlsmithies]

@JonnElledge I do a lot of looking at a computer screen and started getting headaches. Eye test fine. I tried some blue-light-blocking computer glasses - thought they were probably a useless gimmick - but for me they seemed to do the trick. Placebo maybe..?

[deborah @dlsmithies]

@DinahGLRoseKC @NeilVBartlett Almost 20 years ago, I was producer on our little production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia in that very garden!

[Jared of OK Comics @OKComics]

In the last few days I've seen that three independent comic/book shops have announced their imminent closure. Well-run, well known, established shops owned, operated and curated by people who have put their heart and soul into the businesses.
There will be more.
This is a thread

[Kim McGuinness @KiMcGuinness]

If you’re driving over the Tyne bridge today, the reason it looks tired and shabby is because somewhere in London, someone in Government who either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the North East is sat looking at a spreadsheet and saying “well that’s not important to me” (1/2)

[deborah @dlsmithies]

@lucyinglis I can’t yet bring myself to abandon Twitter entirely, because when I pop back I find jewels like this 🙂

[deborah @dlsmithies]

@adamsonjon happy birthday 🥳 xx

[Sarah Rendell @rendellx]

Bryan Habana was asked on the Boks Office podcast who the top RWC try-scorer was as they wanted him to say himself (he's tied with Jonah Lomu with 15 tries). But instead he answered Portia Woodman-Wickliffe (she has 20). That's how representation grows 👏👏