Robert Sharp

Pupil Barrister

Category: Diary (Page 74 of 300)

Things that happen to me, or things I do

Announcing… The Good Shabti

16 June 2014 / / 2 Comments

Exciting news: Jurassic London have just announced the forthcoming publication of my novella, The Good Shabti. Here’s the beuatiful and incredibly scary cover art by award winning artist Jeffrey Alan Love.
shabti-frontFrom the publisher’s description:

The Good Shabti is a story that spans thousands of years. In the twilight days of Pharoah Mentuhotep, a slave stumbles into the path of imperial ambitions. And in contemporary times, a brilliant scientist and her ruthless companions come close to achieving the impossible: the revivification of an ancient mummy. The two stories weave together in a tale that combines science and myth, anticipation and horror…

I will almost certainly post some commentary and little nuggets of extra information about Pharaoh Mentuhotep IV or the writing process or something, between now and the launch in September.  You know, to create a buzz…
Those who have been really paying attention will recall that Jurassic London published a short story by me a little while ago.  if you wanted to read that story for free, well, if you subscribed to the Pornokitsch Weekly Fiction mailing list, then maybe , just maybe, something to your advantage will materialise in your inbox tomorrow morning.

How British values influence the European Court of Human Rights

13 June 2014 / / 0 Comments

In the past few months, I’ve given over a couple of posts to the Labour Party and human rights. See my report of Yvette Cooper’s speech, or Sadiq Khan’s speech, for example. As such, its worth bookmarking a recent Daily Telegraph piece by Khan, on the Human Rights Act, and Britain’s relationship with the European Court of Human Rights.
The lay-reader may appreciate a quick overview of these human rights mechanisms. First, the European Convention on Human Rights incorporates basic protections into a Europe-wide treaty. The UK government must protect human rights because it has signed a treaty saying it shall do so—the rights have not been ‘imposed’ on us by European bureaucrats. The convention also establishes a court (at Strasbourg) to hear cases of human rights abuses. We in UK and the other signatory states are bound by the rulings of the court because we chose to sign the treaty. Continue reading

If you abdicate, that should be game over for the monarchy

2 June 2014 / / 1 Comment

King Juan Carlos is to abdicate. I love this simple poster design, campaigning for a referendum on the future of the monarchy.
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The abdication reminds me of the point I made in last week’s post about MP recalls, where I said:

If the electorate cannot get rid of their representative outside of election time … I think its is only fair that the representatives cannot rid themselves of their electorate either.

I think a similar principle holds for monarchies.  If the hereditary principle means that people cannot choose their head of state, then its inconsistent and wrong for the monarch to be able to choose whether or not they serve as head of state!  If we allow blood-lines to play a part in our constitution then we have to accept whatever gaffe-prone idiot that genetics throws up… and that idiot is stuck with the populous too.
To my mind, a single abication undermines the whole idea of hereditary monarchy.  Any country where that happens should transition to a full democracy with an elected or legislature-appointed head of state (I prefer democracies with a nominal, not executive president but I’m sure there are arguments for and against both models).  I hope that the abdication of the Spanish King triggers a referendum that ends the anacronism.
 

Cite Bite – Filling the online citation gap

2 June 2014 / / 0 Comments

One of my bugbears is the widespread failure of website creators to construct their code (well, technically markup) properly. Back in 2005, Creative Review awarded me ‘Star Letter‘ for my critique of the pretty but entirely inaccessible websites that were being held up as the pinnacle of design. “The web is a medium in itself, not a metaphor for print.”
In particular, I am continually dismayed by sites that present long screeds of text without anchor links that allow linking to a specific part of the text. I wrote a WordPress plugin that adds these invisible bookmarks to the underlying markup.
That’s all very well for my site, but what about other sites? You cannot edit someone else’s content to add the links you want. Continue reading

Against recalls

27 May 2014 / / 0 Comments

It’s rare that I’m at odds with that über efficient mass progressive campaigning movement, 38 Degrees, but today I am.
Their latest campaign is in favour of an MP ‘recall’ system.

MPs can be sent to prison, can fiddle their expenses or break their promises and we can only get rid of them on election day.

The answer, they say, is a ‘recall’ law by which 10% of the electorate could sign a petition that forces a by-election.
I disagree with this idea for reasons of pragmatism and principle.  First, a recall law could used to hack and disrupt the political system. Continue reading

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