Gazing skywards matthewjkelly

It lands! (On Amazon / Kindle at any rate, soon no doubt from your favourite bookshop). The free sample is pretty generous, so you can get an idea of how it rolls. Were any of your ancestors Irish countryfolk? I bet they were. Buy it for them!

Nothing speaks more eloquently to the credulity of the human being than the ‘ripe and ready’ pear.

This is how to do it.

Starting to digest the judgement in the Darwall case, which can be found here: supremecourt.uk/uploads/uksc… On a procedural point, it appears that even if Darwall had won the substantive statutory interpretation argument on the meaning of “open air recreation”, he wouldn’t have achieved the remedy he was seeking if a declaration against the public, as the public weren’t represented in the proceedings. The Dartmoor National Park Authority did not represent the public & the Attorney General was not joined to the proceedings as they should have been. The Supreme Court appears to be pushing back on the increasing trend for civil cases being brought against the public at large, without the public being represented in those proceedings. There doesn’t seem to be any logical reason why this shouldn’t be applied to other cases affecting the public, particularly so-called person unknown injunctions. A very interesting (and much-needed) development; thank you for providing the significant funding needed to clarify this important legal principle, Mr Darwall.

Wasn’t the Butter War a 1970s European trade dispute?

Obscure #Dartmoor question. Does anyone have a photograph of the old GPO Repeater Station at Bush Down (up the road from the Warren Inn & Bennett's Cross)? @dartmoorlander does your encyclopedic knowledge extend to this? I'd like to dig myself out of this rabbit hole... Ta.

So delighted that @SethLakemanNews will be heading a new festival I’m helping organise; we also have @guyshrubsole @CampaignerKate @Scorhill and many more … westcountryvoices.co.uk/new-…

Ah @dcsandbrook, thank you for the mention during the Wojtek the bear episode of @TheRestHistory. Perfect excuse to give Finding Poland a plug, complete with your kind endorsement on the cover! For more on the extraordinary experiences of Polish deportees / refugees during WWII…

As @3000Versts & @RMcGreevy1301 clash over Irish neutrality during WWII, here’s my attempt to work through the issues in the @LRB from 2006. I might well put things a bit differently today, but I reckon the line of argument still broadly stands up. lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v28/n19/…

Proud to be featured in @CPRE #Voice magazine with photos by @lhschiefer - talking about my campaigning career with @openspacessoc @RamblersGB @DartmoorDPA @Campaign4Parks which has been & continues to be hugely enjoyable & rewarding @CrispinTruman

Quick note of congrats to @DrAllyLouks. Sounds like an excellent thesis & I admire how she’s dealing with the trolls.

I’m open to the idea that the govt’s IHT relief on farmland might be re-thought, but we need to hear loud & clear from the NFU & the CLA etc is that the sale of any inherited land, at any time, will be subject to IHT at the rate everyone else pays on an inheritance.

This is suggestive on the impact of wells and water bottling plants on local water supplies but where are the hydrologists in the discussions? theguardian.com/lifeandstyle…

For me, the government reforms of Agricultural Property Relief (APR) miss two big opportunities 1. The political opportunity Labour had coming in to win over more farmers & ‘deep rural’ voters 2. The policy opportunity to use APR more imaginatively A 🧵 on what I mean…