Ben Knight
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Ben Knight
@benjamin-knight.com
He/him
Nerd
Ex-care kid. State school oik
Legal 500 Barrister (chambers in Manchester and London)
Politics snarker
Cat dad
🏳️‍🌈🇬🇧🇫🇷
Music maker
Podcaster/Writer
Joined October 2023r
1st UK Law podcaster
Unexpected Paul Heaton impersonator
centralchambers.co.uk
Can confirm all of these as routine reasons.
You'll notice that 'something something jury something' isn't in this list.
Juries can delay things occasionally.
But a hundred things are far more frequent causes of delays.
But Leveson wasn't asked to fix those.
Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇
November 27, 2025 at 8:06 PM
We really do live in the stupidest times.

The budget: somehow declared by breathless hacks and online commentators as 'far left, communism enacted on the squeezed middle!' and also 'a betrayal of the left and the workers by a rightwing executive!'

It was, of course, not close to being either. 🙄
November 27, 2025 at 8:02 PM
The triple lock has got to go.
It just has.
November 27, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
These two things are true:
1) Shooting National Guard members is horrific and criminal.
2) So is putting National Guard members in harm’s way to score political points.
November 26, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Ben Knight
I don't think this is fair, and think that of the two 'accusations' -

"You're all the same!"

"They've only gone and done a Labour Budget!!"

- the latter is far more accurate. Taxes are higher, investment is higher, the two child limit has gone, they're spending more than Sunak said he would...
Interesting that Labour came in with a mandate for change and a huge majority, along with a bunch of explicit promises (and I would wager a sincere self-conception) to stop being short-termist fire-fighters and actually introduce some stability to UK government... but have largely reverted to form.
November 27, 2025 at 8:28 AM
This is the headline from BBC News that popped up in news alerts. You'll see how terribly biased in favour of the government it is. Obviously.
BBC current affairs is right-wing to its core.
November 26, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Good Lord!
Listening to the public and journalists stroking their beards over the casual abolition of juries is the strongest evidence for why we have juries.
I would imagine that many of us at the Bar will change practice areas if this is allowed to happen.
November 26, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Quite staggering the number of lawyers rushing to give their engagement-enticing opinions on jury trials despite not being criminal lawyers, having any experience of jury trials or day-to-day judicial behaviour in the Crown Court.
November 26, 2025 at 9:03 AM
I am now three attempts into writing an article about the jury proposals from Leveson and his paymasters.
I keep getting too angry.
I suppose that's a clue as to my view.
November 26, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
New: Three new ex-pupils come forward, on the record, to say Farage's racism as a teenager was targeted, persistent and nasty. Farage has denied targeting any individuals - but two of the men tell us they recall Farage abusing Peter Ettedgui.

w/ Dan Boffey, @drblacklock.bsky.social
Three more ex-pupils at school with Nigel Farage reject ‘banter’ claims
Exclusive: Dulwich college contemporaries ‘rubbish’ Reform UK leader’s suggestion alleged racist taunts not intended to hurt
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Reposted by Ben Knight
🔥 Rachel Reeves says there’s a “hole” in the public finances.

A new decade-long Brexit study quantifies it:

A 6–8% hit to GDP

That's £180bn-£240bn a year

It means less tax revenue and so less money for everything.

Brexit made Britain MUCH poorer.
New: Boris Johnson’s ‘Brexit Titanic success’ was half right
Nearly ten years on, the first full assessment of Brexit confirms what millions warned: Britain made itself poorer
eastangliabylines.co.uk
November 26, 2025 at 6:49 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
🚨The Petition calling for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy has now rocketed past 55,000 signatures! Let’s get it to 100,000. If a petition is what it’s going to take let’s get this done!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...
November 26, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
Just the good, friendly, morale-boosting kind of racism.
“I would never ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way”

Nigel Farage responds to allegations of racist behaviour from when he was a teenager at school

@itvnewspolitics.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Ben Knight
November 24, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Ben Knight
DIre warning for anti-wokes ...

meme via Charley Gtrmacs
November 25, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
Transphobes: "ban gender-affirming care for children - there's no evidence puberty blockers are safe!"

*New clinical trial assessing risks & benefits of puberty blockers announced*

Transphobes: "No - don't do that!"

Telegraph ads by #BootsUK, #Sainsburys, #O2, #Waitrose & #SkyUK
November 25, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
This story should be covered waaaaayy more than it is.

The US has sanctioned six judges if the international criminal court ICC, because Trump didn’t like them issuing arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...
Nicolas Guillou, French ICC judge sanctioned by the US: 'You are effectively blacklisted by much of the world's banking system'
Six judges and three prosecutors at the International Criminal Court have been sanctioned by the Trump administration. In an interview with Le Monde, Guillou discusses the impact of these measures on ...
www.lemonde.fr
November 24, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Ben Knight
⚖️ Judgment in Case C-713/23 Wojewoda Mazowiecki:
Can a Member State refuse to recognise a same-sex marriage concluded in another Member State?

🎥 💬 Judge Jan Passer explains — with subtitles in all EU languages 👉 curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/p1...
📰 PR 👉 curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/Jo...
November 25, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
If you receive legal threats from Nigel Farage for your reporting of Reform, please get in touch.

We have employed a defamation lawyer specifically for this purpose and would love to help (and we do so on non-commercial terms). www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reform’s ‘Trumpian’ legal threats hint at more aggressive approach to media
Ultimatums sent to publications appear to intensify as Nigel Farage’s party rises in polls
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
I don't actually care whether Farage is personally racist. I care whether he continues to promote racist ideas and policies. Which he does. What he truly believes in his heart is an irrelevance to me.
November 25, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.

🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.

This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
www.reuters.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
Lots of people are calling out the fact that X is filled with fake MAGA influencers from far away countries, but I wanted to point out that this, not "ideological censorship," is why companies have trust & safety teams that work on stopping inauthentic behavior.
November 24, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Ben Knight
This sentence was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre.

I was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC. /2
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
It’s especially ironic because the lecture is exactly about the ‘paralyzing cowardice’ of today’s elites.

About universities, corporations and media networks bending the knee to authoritarianism. /4
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Ben Knight
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM