Third Church Estates Commissioner. Member, @DACBeachcroft Policy Unit. Barrister @FoundryChambers & Visiting Professor in Practice @LSElaw
London, England
Joined April 2008
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Here we go- @hiddenwiring_uk has arrived!
Robert Buckland retweeted
SIR PATRICK STEWART (1940-2026)
Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt. Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.
We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in 'Star Trek'. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”. Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes ('X-Men' of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway.
America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.
His farewell performance in 'Avengers: Doomsday' is yet to be seen.
Ian McKellen 29 October 2026
Photo: University of Huddersfield
Robert Buckland retweeted
West End theatres will dim their lights for two minutes at 7pm on Tues 3 November in remembrance of Sir Patrick Stewart x
My by-election days with Screaming Lord Sutch - all on @hiddenwiring_uk via: link.podtrac.com/ofdr7ngb
Robert Buckland retweeted
Is that it?
John Healey had a big job to do cleaning up Labour’s mess. This Budget fails to do it.
Britain is overspent, overborrowed and overtaxed. This Budget does not come close to meeting the moment.
My full response👇
Robert Buckland retweeted
Max Dowman: some thoughts. A little bit of understanding and support would not go amiss for a targeted teenager who wants to play the game the right way, who doesn’t roll around on the ground when struck by a bad challenge, and he gets hit by a few. Officials take note. Coaches take note. There’s a balance with young talents of toughening them up physically and mentally while protecting them. There's a balance between admonishment for a mistake and encouragement to learn.
Everyone wants to see Dowman fulfil his huge potential and develop into a major player for Arsenal and, eventually, England. Dowman is a special young talent, still only 16, still with the ink drying on his GCSE papers. He's still a kid, still learning. There have been (premature) calls for Dowman to be fast-tracked into England Under-21s, even the seniors. A month ago Thomas Tuchel and Lee Carsley conferred on Dowman and sensibly agreed his development would best be served by games with the Under-19s. “Max is always in the conversation because of his talent,” Carsley said.
That talent has seen Dowman become the Premier League’s youngest ever goalscorer, become the youngest player in the Champions League, and also get targeted. He gets a kicking, nine times in an Under-19s international against Spain last year. On returning to Arsenal, Dowman was encouraged by his manager Mikel Arteta to learn from Bukayo Saka about the art of dealing with such aggression. It was all about avoiding contact and “to learn when to release the ball”. Arteta also praised Dowman’s “football IQ” with the “super smart” way he makes decisions, praise indeed. It’s impressive in one so young.
His two red cards this month, one for England Under-19s against the USA behind closed doors in Marbella and now for Arsenal against Fleetwood Town, need placing in context. Trend or blip? Dowman, who usually has a composed temperament, suffered a number of robust challenges from the USA when he snapped and put in a strong challenge of his own. Some of those present in the game felt it was only a yellow. Dowman's not a petulant player, but his frustration spilled over at the aggression put in on him.
Similar to last night. There were some robust League Two challenges going in from Fleetwood players on the English champions' winger, testing his temperament, and after 85 minutes he reacted. The focus was on his silly kick out towards Harrison Neal, a soft red but still a red under the Laws, when the focus should also have been on Neal’s challenge which could have injured Dowman. No card was issued against Neal.
Michael Salisbury is an experienced referee, 16 years on the list, including now five years in the Premier League. Like all officials, Salisbury has a duty of care to all players to ensure they are not put at risk by bad challenges. Neal got the ball but the force and pace of his follow-through endangered Dowman, whose standing foot was momentarily trapped. Dowman, any player, deserved some protection from challenges like that.
He also deserved some compassion from Arteta. It’s one thing having strong words in passing if a senior player was trooping off, red-carded, down the tunnel. But Dowman is 16, probably still fuming with the tackle on him, and frustration at dismissal and inevitable feeling of letting the team down. Dowman didn’t need the most important person in his professional life, Arteta, to compound his misery with a frosty few words as he headed towards the tunnel. He's 16. He wasn't being petulant. He was reacting to a bad challenge.
Maybe Arteta was trying to make the point again about Dowman having to withstand such tackles, and not reacting. Arteta told reporters after the game that he had spoken pre-match to Dowman and the other players of the need for emotional control in such an intense occasion.
Fair enough, Dowman will learn. Whatever Arteta's frustration, it felt harsh and small-minded by such a successful, established manager. Officials take note too. It’s worth recalling that Arteta’s club contacted the authorities when they felt Saka was being targeted with bad challenges. Talents - all players - deserve protection. #AFC
Robert Buckland retweeted
Why is a Prime Minister’s big speech so easy to get wrong?
Robert Buckland witnessed Theresa May’s speech unravel: a heckler, a lost voice, a cough, then a collapsing set. 🎧
Hear the behind-the-scenes story on Hidden Wiring.
Enjoy the latest @hiddenwiring_uk episode. This week: by-elections: link.podtrac.com/ofdr7ngb
Robert Buckland retweeted
This copy of Magna Carta in the Abbey's Library collection was made in 1300 and is one of just six known to have survived from this date. The charter was sealed by King John in 1215 and established the universal right to justice and a fair trial.
#ManuscriptMonday
ALT A high-resolution, full shot of the original Magna Carta from 1215, written on aged parchment. The text is written in dense, dark brown medieval Latin script, spanning across dozens of tightly packed lines. The parchment shows signs of aging, with uneven, slightly frayed edges, horizontal creases, and light stains, particularly a notable tear on the lower-left side. At the very bottom center, a faint, circular reddish-brown wax seal is visible. The entire document is set against a plain, neutral background.
Robert Buckland retweeted
Ukrainians keep showing enormous courage in defending their country against Putin’s immoral and indeed evil efforts to conquer a neighbor. They have resisted now for four years and eight months and we should do all we can to help them.
Robert Buckland retweeted
His Majesty King Charles III’s message to the President of Hungary, András Baka, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence.
Robert Buckland retweeted
Andy Haldane interview:
**The financial situation is precarious - the penny hasn't dropped in No 10**
'The penny has not yet fully dropped, including in Downing Street. You see that in us having the highest borrowing costs in the G7, despite not having the highest debts and deficits
'It’s the old [Ernest] Hemingway thing, isn’t it? How do you go bankrupt? First slowly, then very quickly.
'Keir [Starmer] lost the dressing room. Andy’s biggest risk is that he loses the dealing room. And then that’s an even more painful way to go, as Liz Truss would tell you.'
**Britain is at or close to being taxed out**
'The truth is, as a nation, we are at or close to being taxed out,” he says. “And we are at or close to being maxed out in terms of borrowing.
'So for me, the economics of this are very straightforward. We have a public sector, a government sector with a balance sheet whose productivity has failed to rise this century. And we have a private sector which is actually primed, its balance sheet is in good shape.
'If you want good growth in every postcode — dear God, I want that as much as the next man, probably just as much as Andy in fact — the root is by unlocking those animal spirits and that means a smaller state, lower taxes and that means lower government spending and tough choices around that'
**The economy could 'crater' without spending cuts**
“This is not a hypothetical risk. Look across the Channel, not just to what’s happening in France, but what’s happening in Greece or Italy or Portugal or Spain a decade and a bit ago. Avoid that like the plague
'Because when you are forced involuntarily into making much more draconian cuts to appease financial markets and get them back on side that will, one, crater the economy. And, two, almost certainly crater your popularity
'That for me is the peril that comes from prevarication on this front. The peril that comes from not using up political capital and making hard choices'
**A 'mañana' Budget does not speak to the urgency of now**
'The public finances dimension is of course a real concern for me. I feel the time to get on top of that is now because who knows what might turn up tomorrow. And a mañana budget doesn’t speak to the urgency of now
'The mañana choices will not be easier tomorrow. They’re going to be much harder. So backloading them, crossing your fingers and hoping that the weather turns, for me would not be the preferred course, would not be the prudent course, and risks next year being even more of a heavy lift than would otherwise be the case'
**Banking taxes are 'penny wise, pound foolish'**
'The point that actually weighs with me most heavily is that this isn’t just about the banks. If you are felt to be a country that is in the business of doing windfall taxes — if you earn profits, the taxman cometh — that is not a hospitable environment for investors.
'It means you mark down the value of UK businesses and mark up the cost of lending money to those businesses. And that is not a good growth strategy over the medium term. Penny wise, pound foolish'
**What does ending 40 years of neoliberalism mean?**
'Have you been to Manchester? You know it’s the embodiment of neoliberalism done well. Success is founded on being a magnetic attractor of capital, or people, of business and culture. That’s what the UK should become'
**What does public control of utilities mean?**
'From kind of full fat nationalisation, which would cost an arm and a leg, right through to tinkering with the regulatory rules. If you’re in the water industry, the energy industry, parts of the transport industry, investors are saying, ‘Hang on a sec, I’m not putting money in here.'
thetimes.com/uk/politics/art…
Robert Buckland retweeted
Tories win all three local by elections in England last night - one gain apiece from Labour, the Greens and Independents
Robert Buckland retweeted
UK crime was four times higher when Oasis first played Knebworth than at last year’s reunion gigs.
The collapse of crime and safer streets is one of the biggest stories of our time.
But one almost never told - or believed.
My take on today’s figures: comment.press/lawless
Robert Buckland retweeted
I was asked today on MSNOW about the recent ad in the Ohio governor’s race. It’s completely inappropriate and has no place in American politics. It should be taken off the air, and those responsible should apologize.
Here’s what I had to say.
Robert Buckland retweeted
What an embarrassment. Putin is a Communist dictator who has been responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world and the jailing and killing of opposition leaders at home. He is either lying and coddling a dictator on behalf of our country or just plain ignorant
Robert Buckland retweeted
I have read dozens of outraged posts because the US special envoy Witkoff called Putin a "humanist." But no one is writing about the fact that the American negotiators are simply not doing their job. Let me explain.
Peace negotiations are important in their own right. Even if they do not lead to a lasting peace, the process itself is an opportunity to resolve urgent humanitarian issues. If, of course, the human dimension is a priority for the negotiators. But it is entirely obvious that neither Witkoff nor Kushner cares about people's fates in this war.
The Pope calls on Putin to save thousands of people from starvation in occupied Oleshky and the surrounding villages. The UN speaks about a humanitarian catastrophe and asks Russia to allow the evacuation of the civilian population. European Parliament Vice-President Pina Picierno goes on a hunger strike to draw attention to this tragedy unfolding before the eyes of the whole world.
And what are Witkoff and Kushner doing?
That's right, almost nothing.
Except for passing along greetings from Putin’s aide to the First Lady.
Thousands of people are already eating grass to survive and begging to save their lives. The Ukrainian side raises the issue of Oleshky at every meeting. And I can name dozens of such urgent humanitarian issues off the top of my head where American negotiators must be proactive.
Trump’s peace negotiations have already gone down in history as the deadliest years for Ukraine’s civilian population since the start of the full-scale invasion.
I don’t know if anyone will remember the names of Witkoff and Kushner.
But history will certainly record how American negotiators, who had the opportunity to save a huge number of people, refused to raise uncomfortable questions before "humanist Putin."
Robert Buckland retweeted
For @TheEconomist this week I've taken a look at how the ancient art of parliamentary sketch writing is somehow still thriving
Its practitioners tell me they keep politicians honest - by saying things that other journalists can't
Robert Buckland retweeted
Sixty years on, we remember the 144 people who lost their lives in the Aberfan disaster.
Today, The King and The Queen, with The Prince of Wales, spent time at the Aberfan Memorial Garden and the Aberfan and Merthyr Vale Community Centre to honour their memory.
The Aberfan Memorial Garden stands on the site of Pantglas School, where 109 children and 5 teachers died when the coal tip collapsed onto the village.
Watch His Majesty’s speech in full on our YouTube channel (link in bio).