As the Commons rises for the summer, I’ve written a Substack on the vexed question of whether MPs should be precluded from having second jobs. My view is that a ban risks turning Westminster into a closed shop for professional politicians. Read the new post here: substack.com/home/post/p-...

To Oxford University today to take part in a round table on the Chișinău Declaration (relating to the European Convention on Human Rights). The focus was on reforms to immigration and asylum law…

From the other place, today…

Two recommendations in one this week. Both Chinese restaurants - albeit in very different styles. The first is a pricey affair in Kensington (Min Jiang). The second a reasonably priced place in Chinatown (Royal China).

This restaurant recommendation is for one of the rarest of beasts - a good central London fish and chip shop. I was recommended the North Sea Fish Restaurant on Leigh Street (Bloomsbury) at the start of the year; but have visited 3 times before including it (to ensure it is reliable).

I’ll be speaking, alongside Lord Wolfson KC and Professor Vernika Fikfak, at a panel event on reform of the ECHR at Liverpool University on Thursday 4 June. Full details (including how to register) can be found below.

Rather delighted to come home and find this has arrived. Congratulations to @helenetyrrell.bsky.social and Conall for getting it done. It was a real pleasure to be asked to contribute the chapter on extra judicial contributions in Parliament.

This sums up why people end up despising politicians. There is literally no honesty or even ideology. Just triangulation. Starmer gains nothing from this. In Reform leaning constituencies it looks like betrayal. Until he is willing to lock into a real option (EEA, Rejoin) it looks like ephemera.

Nonetheless, if you like fish and seafood it is fabulous. The staff are lovely, the menu is varied and changes frequently. We enjoyed monkfish curry, wonderful prawns and lobster and a super tartar. The millefeuille was also excellent.

We were recommended a new fish restaurant called Quai 38. It’s located in a very different part of town, near the house where Charles de Gaulle was born. (Pictured).

A return to Lille after 8 years. I used to be a regular visitor and often ate at the excellent L´Huitriére restaurant. (Now a branch of Louis Vuitton - a remarkable and rather beautiful conversion - pictured below). But where to eat?

My latest restaurant recommendation comes from Reims (where I am currently celebrating a wedding anniversary). We had a spectacular meal at La Grande Georgette. It was our second visit and I think it must be one of the best restaurants in town.

I have witnessed more than 10 of these ‘protest’ marches in person. I also witnessed, in person, the Countryside Alliance March, the student protests (see fun picture from my office below) and various others that took place on Whitehall. The marches post 2023 were particularly grim and problematic

The style of the place reminded me a bit of the original Noble Rot in London and every dish was pleasing. We concluded our meal with a rather wonderful ‘choux bun’, which looks rather modest but was delicious. Well worth a visit if you fancy some classic French bistro food in Ireland.

My latest restaurant recommendation is in Dublin (which I am currently visiting for a conference on IP law). Forêt is a rather charming French bistro located above the M. O’Brien pub on Sussex Terrace (Dublin City, D04 KN82).

To the National Gallery of Ireland today. To see the Caravaggio in person was worth the trip. This small, early, Van Gogh (Rooftops in Paris), was also rather fun.

For some reason I seem to be the go to person when politicians are accused of misleading Parliament. A certain sense of deja-vu, but nice to be asked.

This week I discovered that one of my favourite restaurants is closing at the end of the month…

Yesterday, there was a debate on treaty scrutiny in Westminster in the Lords. I am very grateful to constitutional expert @lordnortonlouth.bsky.social for highlighting my proposed Private Members’ Bill: the Treaty Ratification (Parliamentary Consent) Bill. It could not have found a better advocate.

One last trip to Club Gascon before it closes at the end of the month. The tipsy duck was magnificent, as always. The restaurant opened in 1998 and held a Michelin Star for over 20 years. Rather sad to see it go - although the excellent Le Bar Gascon will remain.

Being lucky enough to live near Smithfield, I am too often a creature of habit when it comes to restaurants. We have some excellent examples and it is nice to keep things local. However, every quarter I try to catch up with an old colleague from Parliament and try a new Indian restaurant…

If you are both fans of Hockney, I saw a small (free) exhibition of some of his latest work at a gallery opposite the Hanover Sq exit to the Elizabeth Line on Saturday. To my mind, this was the best of the works on show. The checked tablecloth seems to have become a bit of a motif.

I haven’t recommended anywhere in a while, but last month I went to an exceptional cocktail bar which I thought I’d share. Waltz is located on Scrutton Street (London, EC2A) and has been described as London’s most authentic Japanese style cocktail bar.

Very pleased to get the proof back for my chapter on judicial participation in Parliament (which will appear in @helenetyrrell.bsky.social and Conall Mallory’s forthcoming edited collection Extrajudicial Communication Perspectives and Practice).

Took a trip to the Courtauld today to see the wonderful Wayne Thiebaud exhibition. Well worth a visit. Really extraordinary art. Not a big show, but the pictures are really striking. These photos do not do them justice.

Labour promised to reform the “appointments process to ensure the quality of new appointments and will seek to improve the national and regional balance of the second chamber.” It also promised:

I haven’t done a restaurant review in a while. But after a day spent talking about Standard Essential Patents yesterday, here is something a bit more seasonal - the truffle menu at 45 Jermyn Street.

Fair enough. Well this short extract may explain why I said what I said. Many of the arguments around the ECHR occur when rights come into conflict - so it’s not a simple question of saying “what rights are you prepared to lose?”

Because one of the reason for special terrorism legislation is to prevent things from happening in the first place. Including millions of pounds of damage to national security infrastructure. In that context, it’s worth noting what Yvette Cooper told Parliament in the summer.

I went to Helsinki for the first time this year. Really pretty, clean, charming. Lovely people. Great restaurants. But you could buy an affordable martini (pic 2) and drink good wine with you meal. I can’t recall if I recommended it at the time, but Bouchon Carême is a first rate spot (pic 1).