Martin Meenagh blog

Light Blogging Sorry to my one demented reader for the light blogging over the past weekend. I am off to Oxford tomorrow to mix some law teaching with a seminar for Berkeley at Merton College for three weeks. A busy weekend and a deep disaffection with the news all around has stopped me writing for a while. I have no complaint; everywhere I look the economic waters are lapping around people, though not threatening all equally. I at least am keeping my coracle afloat, even if I have to bail out a bit sometimes. But, well, I'm anticipating fun, so will be in high spirits and writing away by tomorrow, I'm sure. In the meantime, I found this lovely video of medieval music on Laban Tall's site. It is enormously relaxing, and I thought that I'd share it.

The Croydon Police Attack I do not trust the mainstream media as far as I could throw them these days. Last week, they were full of stories of what was an apparently awful attack on two community support officers after they allegedly told a young woman to pick up litter. There seems to have been a racial quality to the confrontation which was not reported. The case is ongoing and under investigation. However, courtesy of Laban Tall , I have noted the different suggestions of what really happened. Here is a link to the full story in the local newspaper, the Croydon Guardian . I think, for all of you interested in how criminal cases are reported and spun, it will be an interesting one to follow when it eventually makes its way to the courts.

Patrick McGee I do not know the wider details of the case and only became aware of it because of Laban Tall and Martin Kelly's blog. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Criminal beheadings, or near-beheadings, are characteristic of any society in which bladed articles are possessed that go beyond pen-knives or flick-knives. I remember my little sister, when a child, wondering with one of her friends where the next druggie's head would turn up. They had taken to machetes in the late eighties and early nineties in Corby, largely because of cultural pressure and an escalation in arms amongst their gangs. The one I remember is that of a fairly blameless father of one of these people, who was murdered as both retaliation and deterrence in lieu of his practically worthless son. This isn't a gun-based society, but it is deeply wrong to think knives do less harm. In fact--God help me--I find myself almost hoping that...