Burnham’s Strategy: Manchesterism Meets the Politics of Looking Busy

Andy Burnham did not inherit a government so much as a stage set. After years of mayoral apprenticeship in Greater Manchester, he arrived in Downing Street with a ready-made philosophy called “Manchesterism” and a clear preference for the photographable over the structural. The high-street crackdown is not an aberration. It is the strategy in miniature.

Bail: Nigeria’s Grand Illusion of Justice, Where “Granted” Means “Good Luck Finding a Ghost Surety” by Lawson Akhigbe

In the theater of Nigerian criminal justice, bail is the sparkling prop they wheel out to dazzle the audience with tales of constitutional benevolence, only for the curtain to fall on a punchline so absurd it would make a stand-up comedian blush. Our dear leaders preach presumption of innocence while tying defendants in knots tighter …

A NATIONAL EMERGENCY PROCLAMATION (On the Capture of the Republic by Corruption, Procedural Acrobatics, and Other Lawful Nonsense) by Lawson Akhigbe

WHEREAS Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) declares—perhaps optimistically—that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”;

Exploring Transnational Justice Examples

Corruption cases often exemplify transnational justice because illicit funds flow globally via banks, real estate, and shell companies, enabling foreign courts to assert jurisdiction based on territorial links (e.g., money laundering in their financial systems).

How the Political Right Plans to Square the Circle at Charing Cross Hospital (Spoiler: They Don’t) by Lawson Akhigbe

Charing Cross Hospital sits in that peculiar West London sweet spot where the average house price has long since waved goodbye to the million-pound mark and is now busy collecting gold medals in the “how high can we go” Olympics. The surrounding streets are a parade of desirable postcodes, glossy estate agent boards, and the quiet confidence of people who regard a £1.2 million two-bed as a “starter home” if you squint hard enough and ignore the service charge.