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That it is humane and morally correct to not follow the rules of justice in some cases, one of those being excessive punishment. I believe that this was the motivation in the subject trial -- I would have acted in the same way. In the UK this is a "perverse verdict", judges and government don't like them, but there's not much they can do about it except restrict trial by jury (which is exactly what the UK government is planning to do).

jjgreenon CERN Transitioning to Debian After Being a Longtime RHEL Institution

Just in time for the slop transition ...

jjgreenon Apple Joins Google in Renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America"

Think different.

jjgreenon The British state has lost the argument

Thought experiment: You are a juror in a case where a minor is accused of small-time theft, some cans of Coke. There is video evidence, clearly they stole. In the two cases

- the punishment is a small fine

- the punishment is the amputation of both hands

does your verdict depend on the expected punishment?

jjgreenon How Trump Plans to Steal the Midterm Elections, According to a Whistleblower

Time to start quoting "democracy" chaps ...

jjgreenon The British state has lost the argument

The usual rules don't apply when terrorism is called: The UK has free speech, except terrorism, the UK has a jury-based rule of law, except terrorism, ... you get the idea.

jjgreenon The British state has lost the argument

An interesting comment by Craig Murray on the related Filton case:

This is an extraordinary new legal strategy by which the sentencing for ordinary criminal charges may be radically increased if the judge, and the judge alone, decides there is a terrorist link post verdict. The jury has no say on whether there is a terrorist connection or not, and the judges hide from the jury the possibility of this happening at all.

But the public are not stupid and do not live under a rock. The jury sent a note in the second Filton case to the judge Patrick Field asking him whether there would be sentencing under “terrorist connection”. Field replied to the jury that this was “not your concern”.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2026/08/of-judges-ju...

jjgreenon Neovim Removes DHH Quote

... following a rather ill-humoured discussion https://github.com/neovim/neovim.github.io/issues/501

jjgreenon Time complexity of operations on Python's built-in types

Nice page, but odd that they have O(...) in every row, surely that belongs in the column header

jjgreenon US sanctions Italian hosting provider Autistici Inventati

Hey -- not all skinheads are Nazis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Redskins

jjgreenon Three UK airports hit by cyber-attack with data of 8.7M customers accessed

So, compensation for those affected. Shall we say £10k each?

jjgreenon Ask HN: What AI-visibility tactics have worked best for you so far?

No advertising at all, especially on HN: the organic traffic that you get will feel unforced and privileged and tell their friends. Give it a go!

jjgreenon Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury, It Is a Necessity

Today seems to be international AC shilling day https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49463831

jjgreenon [dead]

The UK's prisons are ample and underoccupied, so it makes sense to bang up a load of 70 year pensioners guilty of holding up a piece of paper bearing the words "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action" just to fill them up.

jjgreenon GitHub Actions Is Down

are down ... oh wait

jjgreenon Apple Maps Ads Are Here, and There's No Way to Turn Them Off

Think just the same

jjgreenon How much of HN is AI?

    def is_content_ai(_content):
        return True

jjgreenon France's tax agency got hacked (in French)

Actually on the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis

jjgreenon France's tax agency got hacked (in French)

My favourite (heard in a bar in Paris): On y go ?