12th September - Law News

Edition 5373: LawNewsIndex is a UK based daily legal news archive on Law, Lawyers, Law Firms, Jurisprudence, Legislation, Litigation, Legal Ethics, Human Rights and Social Justice related issues since 2011.

Today's Highlighted Video: Optis Cellular Technology LLC and others (Respondents) v Apple Retail UK Limited and others (Appellants) (No 1) Case ID: UKSC/2025/0144

A selection of important developments in the world of law and justice (for a comprehensive look at the news and events, please visit @theLawMap Twitter/X feed):

Saturday Conversations on Law

• Listen to the Financial Conduct Authority on litigation funding | Law Gazette
• Family justice “at risk from AI transcription tools” - Legal Futures
• Students and politicians have been welcoming a change in legislation that will mean girls in Northern Ireland are to be given the legal right to wear trousers in school
• MPs have voted against proposals to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, bringing the latest effort to change the law to an end: the House of Commons voted 286 to 270, majority 16, against the proposed legislation
• Alliance of small an boutique law firms 'disappointed' after COLP campaign meeting with SRA | Law Gazette
• Solicitor fined £20k but avoids SDT for multiple rule breaches - Legal Futures

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Last Sunday's Editorial: 

LawNewsIndex was founded as a way of cataloguing the ongoing changes in the UK justice system as well as documenting social justice related conversations as observed through the Twitter/X account @thelawmap. In the decade and half since 2011, LawNewsIndex has collated thousands of articles documenting how the justice system in Britain had responded to local and international events. The ongoing archive on justice, law and societal changes covers each day since December 2011. Since July 2026, a new weekend feature comprising essays, comments and original creative writing on an eclectic range of subjects is being published as The Sunday Editorial from a range of writers:  

 

From Devolution to Revolution: A Lifelong Journey Towards an Independent, Socialist Cymru: (WRITING THE REVOLUTION) 1979. Year of the first devolution referendum and myself and my wife returned to live in Cymru after teaching in a Secondary Modern in rural n.Ireland and a Gymnasium (Grammar) in West Germany.

   Experiencing the ‘wee six’ only reinforced my socialist republicanism while also alerting to the dangers of an armed rebellion, whereas Germany impacted greatly on my environmental beliefs and treatment of immigrants. The Greens were a nascent party there and I couldn’t believe how such a thriving economy could also be so polluting and intolerant to dissent. Gastarbeiter (guest workers from Turkey and Spain in particular) helped create this boom, yet weren’t even recognised as citizens.

   Living initially in the Rhymni valley, we immediately became involved in the referendum, campaigning for the ‘Yes’ vote.The Labour establishment ( led by the likes of Neil Kinnock) were opposed  to a Welsh Assembly. We held a mock election at the school where I taught on the notorious Gurnos estate in Merthyr and I helped out (I was described as a ‘Plaid Communist’). As with Cymru generally, devolution was empathically rejected in what pro-devo Labour MP Elystan Morgan called a clear demonstration of our collective ‘inferiority complex’ as a nation.

   Modelled very much on groups in n. Ireland, I soon joined the Welsh Socialist Republican movement on the fringe of mainstream parties, but arguing for the kind of country I envisioned, where we’d be citizens not subjects of the Crown and where the people would own and control all our resources.

   One member (who I know to this day) approached me asking – ‘Would you fight for Wales?’ It came out of the blue and I wasn’t definitive in my reply.

   The WSRM broke up after arrests and controversies and my political home became CymruGoch (the Welsh Socialists) together with others from the WSRM.CG started a monthly paper ‘Y FanerGoch’, which I often wrote for and took an active role in campaigns such as the anti-poll tax union, where we helped people in court and refused to pay ourselves. If Thatcher hadn’t conceded and jettisoned the iniquitous tax, I’d have ended up in prison rather than paying a fine! CG also gave birth to the Red Poets, still going after 33 years and, as one member claimed, our most important lasting legacy.

   Leaping across the decades, it seems astonishing that Plaid Cymru now lead a government in our Senedd. It’s the only party I’ve joined (several times)…. yet left in disillusionment.

   Fundamentally, I believe in a peaceful revolution, in politics built from below not above, with both political and economic power distributed as widely as possible.

   It seems that the system changes even the most radical of individuals; the prime example being Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas, once an active member of the WSRM, who later joined the House of Lords and praised both monarchy and the Unionist Labour Party.

   I always recall a quote from the late Tony Benn ( ironically a great Parliamentarian) insisting that the greatest changes in society came from outside Parliament, as he looked to the likes of Trade Unions and suffragettes.

   To me, CymdeithasYrIaith (the Welsh language society) are the case in point: an organisation which, through mass civil disobedience, saved Cymraeg from extinction!

   And so today I’m a member of Cymru’n Codi / Cymru Rising, an eco-socialist republican movement designed to bring together leftists here with common aims (notably independence); activists from the Greens, Plaid and non-party members like myself.

    Having been involved in issues like anti-poll tax and anti-opencast mining – where we won both battles – I am convinced change is possible given solidarity and determination.

   Even more crucial, I observe something I know intimately like our education system, and conclude that only revolutionary changes can deliver. We deserve schools and colleges where enjoyment and creativity are at the very core and where questioning not conformity is valued. Failure must not be built in. 38% of GCSE pupils are deemed to have failed, yet if folios of their work had been collected throughout their school careers and group, oral and coursework became vital parts of learning this need not happen.

   The people who rose up in Merthyr in 1831 didn’t have a choice. Yet neither do we in reality. If we want to halt climate change, place welfare over warfare, build a true democracy without Lords and Kings and ensure that Cymru achieves its full potential, then reform can only nibble at the margins.

   The exciting thing about revolution is, like a poem, we are never quite sure where we’ll end up but, with the creative will of the people, it can only improve on a society where homelessness and poverty are accepted as the norm.

 

 Mike Jenkins

Read last week's Editorial 

Mike Jenkins won the ‘Wales Book of the Year 1998’ for his collection of short stories about young people from the Welsh valleys, ‘Wanting to Belong’, published by Seren Books. Widely regarded as one of Wales’ most prolific poets over the last five decades, he had edited the Poetry Wales magazine and has been the co-editor of ‘Red Poets’ magazine for 33 years (issue 32 will be launched in Merthyr in September). He organises regular events of poetry & music at Caffi Soar in Merthyr with the Red Poets. His other prizes include an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. His latest books include (as editor), ‘We not me / Ni Nid fi’ (Culture Matters) radical poetry from Cymru and ‘He sings the broken cities’ poems in English, Welsh and Merthyr dialect (also, Culture Matters).    

 

Socials: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mjenkins1927 ~ Twitter/X -  https://x.com/mjenkins1927

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