Max Hardy
@maxjlhardy.bsky.social
Barrister | TV legal consultant (Mr Bates, Landscapers, Criminal UK, Defending the Guilty) | Legal blogger & media commentator |
Kalisher Trust Trustee
Blogs, lectures, podcasts, profiles here:
https://linktr.ee/MaxJLHardy
Kalisher Trust Trustee
Blogs, lectures, podcasts, profiles here:
https://linktr.ee/MaxJLHardy
The Duke of Wellington said publish and be damned. He wasn’t wrong.
September 17, 2026 at 7:37 PM
The Duke of Wellington said publish and be damned. He wasn’t wrong.
Reposted by Max Hardy
Andrew Thomas KC: ‘Curbing jury trials is about cost-cutting not delays’
www.thetimes.com/article/d0a6...
www.thetimes.com/article/d0a6...
Andrew Thomas: ‘Curbing jury trials is about cost-cutting not delays’
The Criminal Bar Association chair talks to Catherine Baksi about why we need juries, his love of the criminal Bar and his pride in being Welsh and northern
www.thetimes.com
September 17, 2026 at 1:13 PM
Andrew Thomas KC: ‘Curbing jury trials is about cost-cutting not delays’
www.thetimes.com/article/d0a6...
www.thetimes.com/article/d0a6...
If you’re a barrister and you run into a judge at the weekend the correct etiquette is to address them as ‘Judge’. Conventionally they call you ‘Mr’ in return. This feels very Jane Austen though and no doubt prompted a judge recently to greet me with ‘Hey Man’ instead.
September 16, 2026 at 8:13 PM
If you’re a barrister and you run into a judge at the weekend the correct etiquette is to address them as ‘Judge’. Conventionally they call you ‘Mr’ in return. This feels very Jane Austen though and no doubt prompted a judge recently to greet me with ‘Hey Man’ instead.
AI can’t be that bloody intelligent if it’s going to kill us all. Who’s going to pay the electricity bill when we’re gone?
September 16, 2026 at 6:30 PM
AI can’t be that bloody intelligent if it’s going to kill us all. Who’s going to pay the electricity bill when we’re gone?
Parenting is getting into bed after a long day and being spiked by a plastic Tyrannosaurus Rex that your son left there and feeling equal parts livid and amused.
September 15, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Parenting is getting into bed after a long day and being spiked by a plastic Tyrannosaurus Rex that your son left there and feeling equal parts livid and amused.
Here’s a piece I wrote for The Spectator about school to parent communication: spectator.com/article/spar...
September 14, 2026 at 7:10 PM
Here’s a piece I wrote for The Spectator about school to parent communication: spectator.com/article/spar...
Has anyone ever tried to calculate the number of lives cost, the money spent and the time devoted to the USA treating the USSR as its enemy only for Trump to capitulate, almost completely, to Putin’s wishes?
September 14, 2026 at 12:24 PM
Has anyone ever tried to calculate the number of lives cost, the money spent and the time devoted to the USA treating the USSR as its enemy only for Trump to capitulate, almost completely, to Putin’s wishes?
I know we’ve subsided into semi-literacy thanks to the Internet and AI but I’m reading ‘Watership Down’ to the Hardy Boys and wondering whether 1970s kids could seriously read French epigraphs?
September 13, 2026 at 7:35 PM
I know we’ve subsided into semi-literacy thanks to the Internet and AI but I’m reading ‘Watership Down’ to the Hardy Boys and wondering whether 1970s kids could seriously read French epigraphs?
9yo asks to put 2yo in car seat. Fine, I say, delighted. 5 minutes of anguished wrestling later he looks at me, appalled. Welcome to childcare, kid.
September 13, 2026 at 12:44 PM
9yo asks to put 2yo in car seat. Fine, I say, delighted. 5 minutes of anguished wrestling later he looks at me, appalled. Welcome to childcare, kid.
Reposted by Max Hardy
You know you’re living in strange times when Last Night of the Proms feels like the least jingoistic thing happening in Britain at the moment.
September 13, 2025 at 9:05 PM
You know you’re living in strange times when Last Night of the Proms feels like the least jingoistic thing happening in Britain at the moment.
Unfathomably rich men are buying Reform for them not for you. If you vote for Reform you are voting for them not for you.
September 12, 2026 at 3:16 PM
Unfathomably rich men are buying Reform for them not for you. If you vote for Reform you are voting for them not for you.
Long week, evening with the family, 2 year old screaming the house down. Who needs Whisky Sour when you’re having a Cortisol Cosmopolitan?
September 11, 2026 at 9:38 PM
Long week, evening with the family, 2 year old screaming the house down. Who needs Whisky Sour when you’re having a Cortisol Cosmopolitan?
My sister’s account of witnessing 9/11. As she says, the antidote to terror is kindness, true that dreadful day and true always: www.newsweek.com/twin-towers-...
'I Was Staying Across The Street From The Twin Towers on 9/11'
At the area we were evacuated to, one block away, we began to see people jumping out of the towers, It was absolutely horrifying. I spoke to a woman who was distraught because her husband worked in th...
www.newsweek.com
September 11, 2026 at 6:05 AM
My sister’s account of witnessing 9/11. As she says, the antidote to terror is kindness, true that dreadful day and true always: www.newsweek.com/twin-towers-...
Explain it like I'm 5 but why can't we stop the AI apocalypse by just unplugging the machine?
September 10, 2026 at 11:08 PM
Explain it like I'm 5 but why can't we stop the AI apocalypse by just unplugging the machine?
Back in January I had a chat with Petra Khashoggi about what Eton gives and what it takes away, if that’s of interest you can have a listen here: petrakhashoggi.substack.com/p/in-convers...
In conversation with Maximilian Hardy: 'Eton Inside: Prejudice & Pride'
A recording of our live video
petrakhashoggi.substack.com
September 9, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Back in January I had a chat with Petra Khashoggi about what Eton gives and what it takes away, if that’s of interest you can have a listen here: petrakhashoggi.substack.com/p/in-convers...
Treat protestors reasonably win the respect of the reasonable. Treat them with thuggery win the respect of thugs. What happened at that Conference is beyond toleration.
September 5, 2026 at 6:33 PM
Treat protestors reasonably win the respect of the reasonable. Treat them with thuggery win the respect of thugs. What happened at that Conference is beyond toleration.
Extremely difficult to take seriously the threats of a man who looks like he would struggle to occupy a lavatory.
September 4, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Extremely difficult to take seriously the threats of a man who looks like he would struggle to occupy a lavatory.
Repeated on Radio 4 today being scolded by Joanna Hardy-Susskind (no relation) for the state of my wig but canvassing more serious criminal justice topics too. A really excellent series: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
You Do Not Have to Say Anything - Episode 5: My Learned Friends - BBC Sounds
Come inside the barristers’ robing room.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 4, 2026 at 12:10 PM
Repeated on Radio 4 today being scolded by Joanna Hardy-Susskind (no relation) for the state of my wig but canvassing more serious criminal justice topics too. A really excellent series: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Same same, but different.
September 4, 2026 at 8:03 AM
Same same, but different.
If you’re called Gloria you’d better Stun’em, and she did.
September 3, 2026 at 8:50 PM
If you’re called Gloria you’d better Stun’em, and she did.
It would have been très drôle if King Charles had pressed a button at the British Museum and this happened to the Bayeux Tapestry.
September 3, 2026 at 7:20 AM
It would have been très drôle if King Charles had pressed a button at the British Museum and this happened to the Bayeux Tapestry.
Grab its ring. Keep your bag up. Outvibe him.
Hey, listen, show no fear! Just run at it.
Well that can't be sensible can it? The bastard's about to run at me.
Well he's randy!
Yeah, yeah. I know he is.
Wants to get down there and have sex with those cows.
Shut up Withnail!
Hey, listen, show no fear! Just run at it.
Well that can't be sensible can it? The bastard's about to run at me.
Well he's randy!
Yeah, yeah. I know he is.
Wants to get down there and have sex with those cows.
Shut up Withnail!
September 1, 2026 at 7:11 AM
Grab its ring. Keep your bag up. Outvibe him.
Hey, listen, show no fear! Just run at it.
Well that can't be sensible can it? The bastard's about to run at me.
Well he's randy!
Yeah, yeah. I know he is.
Wants to get down there and have sex with those cows.
Shut up Withnail!
Hey, listen, show no fear! Just run at it.
Well that can't be sensible can it? The bastard's about to run at me.
Well he's randy!
Yeah, yeah. I know he is.
Wants to get down there and have sex with those cows.
Shut up Withnail!
A man’s man. A woman’s man. Everybody’s man: counselofperfection.substack.com/p/peak-mascu...
August 30, 2026 at 10:41 PM
A man’s man. A woman’s man. Everybody’s man: counselofperfection.substack.com/p/peak-mascu...
Patrick did a splendid job in Ireland. David, not so much in Wales. My cousin confidently told the kids not to worry, it’s only a grass snake. Google said that didn’t adder up.
August 27, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Patrick did a splendid job in Ireland. David, not so much in Wales. My cousin confidently told the kids not to worry, it’s only a grass snake. Google said that didn’t adder up.