local government

R (Bailey) v Brent: law against the cuts (and politics)

December 20, 2011

As a resident of Brent in north-west London, I’m not sure what I think about the Labour council’s planned library cuts. I’m not happy that any should be cut. I don’t want social care to be cut any more than it needs to be, either, or any of the other important things councils do. And […]

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Supreme Court judgment: R (MacDonald) v Kensington & Chelsea

July 7, 2011

Because of bladder problems, Elaine McDonald needs to go to the toilet several times during the night; and because of mobility problems, she can’t get there safely on her own. Kensington & Chelsea have decided that her needs can be met by the use of incontinence pads, which is about £22,000 a year cheaper than […]

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Lap-dancing clubs and human rights

April 21, 2010

I’ve written at Comment is Free today about the threat, made by lap-dancing club owners, to use the Human Rights Act to challenge the new legislation regulating them: It’s difficult to argue that firms should never enjoy convention rights – if they didn’t, media organisations like the Guardian would be unable to enforce freedom of […]

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Mrinal Patel case dropped

July 3, 2009

Harrow Council has abandoned its prosecution of Mrinal Patel today. No surprise there, then. I expressed myself in moderate terms while criminal proceedings were under way, but summonsing her under the Fraud Act 2006 always looked dodgy – it’s difficult to see how you can really call a school place property. I agree with Harrow […]

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A good week for Basildon

January 26, 2009

It was a jolly good week in court last week for Basildon Council. First, they won against the Equality and Human Rights Commission in this case about travellers in the Court of Appeal; then they followed it up with this win against the golf club in the High Court. All sections of society must tremble […]

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The Southall Black Sisters case

July 28, 2008

Rahila Gupta in today’s Guardian writes about the victory of Southall Black Sisters in its judicial review a couple of weeks ago: Ealing Council had wanted to cut its support for the organisation in order to fund another means of domestic violence provision not targeted at black and Asian women. Well, it looks as though […]

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