giffordhead.co.uk
I'm a barrister & mediator. Things I like include: legal history & legal oddities; music & musical instruments; Mesopotamian history; & Portuguese wine and Port.
My professional website is: http://www.giffordhead.co.uk
Forgive typos.
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Getting Started
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Do you often struggle to understand which sign was intended? Apologies if that is a stupid question! I just remember the huge amount of effort that went into transcribing tablets in the various cuneiform scripts before one embarked on translating them, due to the difficulties in reading them.
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I was thinking more generally. I remember 20 years ago OCR struggling with any English that hadn’t been printed in 12pt Times New Roman. Now my ’phone can do my messy handwriting without trouble instantaneously. I assume that Chinese will continue to improve over the next decade or so.
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The Lord John ones are all original. I have a few things from that shop now. Their suits were made to be worn with platform shoes which suits me since I have a very long inside leg. But most of their stuff was quite impractical. I boil in the suits because they have man-made fibre.
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Thanks. That’s interesting. Particularly the recognition point since my assumption had been that there was greater consistency than many other languages (e.g. some very cursive or complex ones) which might make it less of a technical challenge than elsewhere.
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Thank you. This is all interesting. I wasn’t really sure if the main problem was mechanical transcription or translation (or both!)
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I was more thinking about being able to go from a photograph to a transcription and then translation rather than the other way around!
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They mostly come out for social occasions! Or when I have to robe for court since then it doesn’t really matter what tie you wear.
The only tie I don’t wear because it produces utter bafflement is my pink one from Al Bazar. No-one understands what the 7 represents!
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I’m interested that hieroglyphs are thought to be a particular problem. Do you know what the issues are? My instinct was that it was unlikely to be more challenging that many modern languages which have pretty good OCR and mechanical translation.
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Yes. I think there are no bright lines here. Just a mixture of emphasis.
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That’s a great fabric!
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I can imagine! In England all the jury trials are robed so we don’t have to worry about the influence of ties on jurors. I try to be reasonably restrained for most important cases in front of a judge. Though I do have one with tiny white elephants for appropriate situations...
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I think that might be a bit much for me! As much as a like the high collars and spear point collar.
I don’t mind the no-ties as much as the really boring ties people (especially politicians) wear. A bit of decoration won’t harm anyone!
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I wondered if that might be it. Though, of course, there is a tension with that because so many JR cases arise suddenly & at short notice. For example, this recent High Court appearance was in a case issued on 20 Feb 2025.
www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWH...
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It isn’t! But I don’t know him nor have I encountered him before. It’s certainly not the way that I would act but, equally, there are areas where practise as a lawyer involves a decent amount of campaigning. I remember listing to a talk from an international human rights barrister who said as much.
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I assumed it was one of those cases whereby they could explain away some aspects of the Crown’s case but not the totality of it. But I wouldn’t like to express a firm view considering just how lengthy and complex the case was.
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It’s certainly not being conducted in the usual way. But then I guess they don’t have many legal options available to them.
I do think it is a pity that there wasn’t any defence evidence at trial but I still think the most likely explanation is they couldn’t find anyone sufficiently credible.
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I can certainly see it becoming a tax on businesses and the poor over the next few years with the wealthy buying new cars which will be electric.
I think the more difficult discussion which needs to take place is what will be the replacement income stream as fuel phases out?
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Is yours in playable condition? I think it is the only 19th Century one to survive with all of the others being built from the 1990s onwards.
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(He suggested it could be traced back to the days when Family Law was a form of Ecclesiastical Law. I’m not sure that is so far fetched since we still acknowledge that Chancery has a different culture to Civil which dates back to the mid-19th C.)
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I think they both are and they are not. On the one hand, the FPR is formally a subset of the CPR. On the other, the Family Court is in independent court with a specialist jurisdiction. And I think Lord Sumption was right in arguing that the Family Court have a different approach to the Civil Ones.
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I suppose the most logical one might be under rC21.2 that the knowledge the Treasury Devil acquires through his briefs (& sadly it’s always a “him” so far...) means he cannot represent another party without divulging confidential information. But I’m not sure that works on a blanket basis. Thoughts?
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There’s one in Paris in the Cité de la musique. I like to pay homage to it whenever I am there!
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*stopping
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Ah. Interesting. I will have to tinker with their route planner the next time I want to procrastinate. You're right about the quality of the direct coach services to Paris from Lisbon and anywhere further North. There's a slopping service that connects all sorts of places. I had no idea.
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Makes me wonder what the longest direct coach route is that they operate. 24h55m must be towards the longer end! (Also fascinated about the other Paris to Lisbon routes like the one that goes via Coimbra.)
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Anyone in a position to require bulk first registration services clearly can afford it to be carried out in the most traditional an expensive way!
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How much Crown land remains unregistered? That used to be a significant proportion of the total for far longer than was sensible.
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I'm slightly surprised that there's enough traffic that way to justify an extra train. I'd have thought you'd want the extra one going into the City since I thought they tended to flee Paris at every opportunity for the countryside!
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I'm trying to work out the tolerance for a definition of "surface" to include all the bridges and tunnels in Europe. It's surprisingly wide, especially considering some of the Alpine tunnels!
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For an attempt using "surface public transport" isn't this cheating? 😉
(PS. Enjoy!)
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I do think that one problem with expert evidence in England, particularly medical evidence, is that because being an expert is not compulsory, we end up with a lack of experts & many experts being chosen because they are thought to favour one side.
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Excellent stuff!
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I always quite liked the rifles regimes doing the "double" but you very rarely see that these days!
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Perhaps she'd like an official birthday?
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I was thinking as much of the selection of units as anything else. Isn't the US Military big enough that you could put together a selection who would do a better job?
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Yes! I only know the vaguest things about it and thought your post yesterday was interesting.
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Thank you. This is all super helpful! I will have a look at some bookshops.
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I tried to visit Beak last time I was in Lewes but found it was one of those places which says it is open when it is closed! Maybe next time.
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This has to be deliberate, surely? They must have decided to have no effort whatsoever?
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I'd be surprised if one of them in each generation wouldn't want to keep it going. After all, it is quite easy for an individual to opt out and retain a life of unimaginable wealth for most of us. See, eg, Prince Harry or Edward VIII.
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PS. Did you ever visit Cellarhead when it was in operation? I really rated their beers and, of course, the name appealed. It was just outside Bedgebury which is just over the border into Kent.
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I love Lewes. It's one of my favourite towns. I also like Harvey's for making a lot of dark and malty beers. My favourites are probably their dark mild and old ale. Both of which are a lot lighter than the others we've been discussing!
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I remember being in a restaurant in Latakia in Syria where they had a similar arrangement involving a pelican and a fresh fish! Solidified my love of pelicans...
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It's 7.5% which I think makes a 50cl bottle of this barely stronger than a couple of 33cl bottles of Peroni!