@colinmurray.bsky.social
Professor of Law & Democracy @newcastleuni.bsky.social Constitutional Law | Human Rights | Brexit | Devolution | Political Violence | Colonialism | Other Assorted Dourness He/Him
@colinmurray.bsky.socialProper wrap up and yell into the storm night in Portstewart!
@colinmurray.bsky.socialSay what you want about crumbling public services, but the NI courts are pulling out all the stops. This is the moment when the Orange Order finds itself on the wrong side of primary decision maker discretion, which is a cold place to be in emergency judicial review:
@colinmurray.bsky.socialSo it was all a dream, right?
@colinmurray.bsky.socialIt takes 13 days for Jon Boutcher to make this request for Bryant to review the Parades Commission Drumcree determination. A Friday evening chaos move. We're living in a reality TV show...
@jdportes.bsky.socialReposted by @colinmurray.bsky.socialThis prompted me to go back and check the claim that "On current DWP forecasts, from the 2024 election until 2030, Labour will have increased working-age benefit spending by a further £51.6 bn/year." It appears to be equally fictional/spreadsheet error. Correct figure is maybe £36bn..
@jennifercobbe.bsky.socialReposted by @colinmurray.bsky.socialYou cannot be cruel to a large language model anymore then you can be mean to a brick
@chrisbogle.bsky.socialReposted by @colinmurray.bsky.social1. The independent Taskforce — commissioned by NHS England, backed by government — concluded ADHD is under-diagnosed, under-recognised and under-treated in the UK. Not over. The press has reported the reverse of the finding
@colinmurray.bsky.social"Labour is right to put Northern Ireland veterans first" is a remarkable editorial line for the Independent to take. First over who? Well...
But read the detail of Bryant's statement. Labour is proposing protections for "lawful actions" - not blanket immunity:
@johnspringford.bsky.socialReposted by @colinmurray.bsky.socialConservatives double the cost of net zero with spreadsheet error. Spiky comment from the Climate Change Committee, whose estimates they messed up www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
@colinmurray.bsky.socialWell this will definitely address all of Mary McAleese's concerns that integration is being sidetracked. The GAA have started taking reputation management advice from the FAI...
@ukcla.bsky.socialReposted by @colinmurray.bsky.socialJoanna Bell & Hayley J Hooper: Not in my (Constitutional) Backyard: How Not to Speed Up Planning Challenges ukconstitutionallaw.org/2026/10/08/j...
@colinmurray.bsky.socialI think universities might have mentioned their role in research and innovation a couple of times... dying.
@colinmurray.bsky.socialSilly from Jo Johnson: Our government added layers of extra regulation and market competition upon Universities at a time when the value of each home student place was declining in real terms, then we killed international recruitment, but we didn't cause the HE crisis:
@colinmurray.bsky.socialThe effects of not having a budget in place in NI are real and are being felt by publicly funded bodies - like QUB and UU - throughout NI. The Executive parties have to get back to keeping the lights on, or everyone will end up a lot poorer:
@colinmurray.bsky.socialThere is a lot that the summary judgment occludes (like how the NICA considers s 52 of the Climate Change Act should work?), but McAlinden J is the same judge who pulled at all the procedural threads in the Parades Commission decision making. The NICA is cautioning against overstating errors in JR.
@colinmurray.bsky.socialThe High Court's A5 ruling, with its broad application of JR standards, followed judicial complaints over the assessment of emissions standards by the Dept of Infrastructure. The NICA isn't convinced and insists that judicial review is a supervisory jurisdiction:
@colinmurray.bsky.socialGreat to see @sylviademars.me present her case studies on frontier workers on the island of Ireland after Brexit. Thousands of people are affected by the clashing post-Brexit systems which are still not fully mapped and this work will have huge consequences in every day life:
@colinmurray.bsky.socialI'm old fashioned ... I think that preeminently rights questions aren't best up for grabs in day-to-day politics. Also, Garvaghy Road is not the confutation of the peace process - it's one edge case:
@colinmurray.bsky.socialOkay, I get that Drumcree is kicking off, but deploying an aircraft carrier to Belfast was low on my list of possible policy solutions...
@colinmurray.bsky.socialNew open-access paper from @clarerice.bsky.social & Megan Campbell drawing together some of the discussions with the general public in NI that we had in the course of the "Performing Identities" project. Really important reflections on a decade of Brexit reality:
