Welcome to the new blog

17th March 2019

Jack of Kent is no more.

I had been getting tired of the old fellow for some time.

Having a blogging name was something you did ten or so years ago, and I chose the name of Jack of Kent after the medieval wizard who outwitted the Devil by close attention to what was said.

It seemed a good name for a legal blog.

But one obvious problem was that my name is not Jack and (although I lived in north Kent when I started the blog) I am not from Kent.

Another problem was that I recently felt I did not know what to do with the JoK name – was it a distinct brand or a distinct approach, was it a character?

It was beginning to feel all rather odd, as I did not tweet nor do my journalism under the JoK name.

So I have now killed the old fellow off.

Bye, Jack.

*

This blog is now under the name I do my legal commentary on Twitter and at the Financial Times and elsewhere.

You will see the url has changed.

The JoK name may still crop up in update emails, and so on, until the name change works its way through the system.

And I am afraid a lot of old links will now be dead. I am sorry for the inconvenience that will cause.

*

But I have also done more than change the site name.

I have taken down my old posts, as it seemed a good moment to start afresh with my online presence.

(Though over time I may re-post some of the old posts which seem worth re-publishing.)

One nice thing about blogging independently is that you can take things down as easily as you can put things up.

Independent blogging (as opposed to blogs on commercial or news sites) is, in essence, a form of pamphleteering. It is a flexible and often ephemeral medium.

*

I think the time has arrived to start afresh with a new personal blog.

Indeed – though I cannot promise – I may even get into the habit of blogging more regularly on here (instead of tweeting).

And it must be said, WordPress is now a lot more user-friendly than it used to be.

Thank you for joining me on this new(ish) blog.

And if you want to subscribe, there is subscription box above (on an internet browser) or on a pulldown list (on mobile).

38 thoughts on “Welcome to the new blog”

  1. Excellent – great to have you back blogging. Much as I enjoy the threads, it’s sometimes just easier to read a single post. Thank you.

    @HuwSayer

  2. Thanks for sharing your insights. You are a force for intellectual rigour and courtesy on the internet. I look forward to reading your posts. Kind regards Michael

  3. I am not a lawyer so have found your legal perspective on issues accessible, interesting and informative.

    The occasional humour and panda clips are a bonus!

    Good luck with the new blog.

  4. All the best for the new blog – your commentary on Brexit has been one of the best.

    I think it’s amazing and instructive how few decent commentators there are: David Henig, Sam Lowe, Peter Foster, Tony Connelly, your good self, and perhaps one or two others?

    The mainstream “political correspondents” have been below par – could it be because Brexit requires some knowledge?!

    Thanks.

  5. Well. Thank you for your many words of wisdom and explication. As one of your many Russian Pornbot followers I look forward to reading more.

    1. Please keep up the incisive commentary on the bizarre current politics. All much appreciated!

  6. Your tweets are invaluable (please don’t give them up), but good to hear you may be blogging more often. The longer form medium just feels more civilized and relaxed, so looking forward to your posts

  7. I look forward to the new blog. There are few commentators whose opinion I value on Brexit but you are one, although I often don’t agree with you.

  8. Great to read about your new blog…but I can’t find where to subscribe…can you help please?

    1. On a laptop/desktop internet browser it will be in the top left. On a mobile bowser you may have to click a pull down menu.

  9. Please keep your blog going – it was informative, polite and worth reading. I disagreed on occasions but in shades of grey!

  10. LOL, I don’t care what you call yourself, but… I have been impressed, and educated, and surprised by your posts!

    I know/acknowledge you as David (OK, I’m a Twitter follower) and you have brought enlightenment to my (under-exposed) understanding of politics (or whatever), but…. I really, really do appreciate everything you write :)

  11. Along with others I value your insight. I look forward to following you. I have a burning unresolved question which perhaps you can answer sometime. It seems to me my Brexit supporting MP could be guilty of malfeasance. The simple basis being that in light of information in the past year that the referendum leave campaigns committed criminal offences by significant overspending, the government has taken a political decision to push ahead with Brexit and ignore the unsound factors around the campaign. As a result of turning a blind eye to this I and many others are being disadvantaged. Specifically our loss of European Citizenship is a significant loss of rights. Is it not misconduct in public office to ignore the irregularities and fail to protect our Citizenship (or other examples of disadvantages that could be quoted.

    1. Political frustration often leads to people thinking of legal action but on the whole it is better to keep litigation out of politics.

  12. Thanks for following up with your new blog site, etc, I really did appreciate your clarity, and I infinitely prefer that it appear in wordpress, rather than Twitter, which I don’t use.

    I would have welcomed your input on last week’s Commons pantomimes . . .

  13. I’ve followed you on Twitter since the Twitter bomb joke trial. You cut through the rhetoric then and you continue to do so now. Whether JoK or DAG, you are an essential part of the rational thinker’s toolkit! Thank you and please tweet as often as you can, alongside this blog.

  14. Thanks for being a clear & impartial guide to the legalities, pratfalls & pitfalls of the current political idiocies. As a confused & flabbergasted observer it is good to have someone cutting through the bullshit with a clear analysis. And Panda videos.

  15. Thanks for all of your insight, really helpful to be able to read your thoughts on brexit matters as it helps put much of the screeching from so many voices on social media where it belongs.

  16. Thank you for returning. Some of us over here in Estonia prize our Republic’s ties with the UK, noting that something around 100 UK lives were lost in naval operations in 1918 or 1919, when the Royal Navy provided mission-critical support to our own forces in the War of Independence. Without that early UK naval support our Republic would perhaps have perished before Estonian land forces were able to mount their successful 1919 counteroffensive. The current Brexit difficulty is from this particular Estonian perspective a source of dismay, even of grief. A strong and united Europe is in the general public interest – in Estonia and the UK of course, and indeed also elsewhere (including in those troubled, currently maldadministered, jurisdictions which are the USA and the Russian Federation). (sincerely) Toomas Karmo (http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com; in Tartu Observatory dark-sky compound at Tõravere, in Nõo Commune, Tartumaa County)

  17. As a newbie to Twitter really pleased to have found you – look forward to your fresh start tweeting and also reading your blogs, most especially as they are now independent.

  18. Oh no! Does that mean the airport trousers story has disappeared into the ether?
    Sadly I can’t remember anything much about it except that there were trousers, and an airport, and I hurt myself laughing.

    (and now I’m not even sure about the airport…)

    Ah well, I guess there’s all that serious stuff we should be concentrating on, eh? Looking forward to the next ten years.

  19. May I ask if they push to remove us from the ECHR would they be able to force us to have medical treatment and be able to remove us from our homes?

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