It’s been an unusual week, what with a record breaking heatwave and BoJo giving us his, ‘Hasta la vista’ farewell speech from the Dispatch box during Prime Minister’s Questions. However, I feel I should write about other worldly matters, writes David Little, a Partner in our Corporate and Commercial department.
A pig from Derbyshire whose owner claims it to have psychic powers made a prediction as to who will be the UK’s next Prime Minister following the ousting of Boris Johnson. Lorraine Kelly’s psychic guest on her ITV show sparked a frenzy after predicting that Boris Johnson would resign from his position as Prime Minster after dozens of ministers resigned.
The clairvoyant pig, named Mystic Marcus, was once again been called upon to answer the nation’s biggest political question. Namely, who will be our next Prime Minister? His previous triumphs apparently foretold the election of Donald Trump, the result of the Brexit referendum, and who would win the World Cup.
This time, his psychic skills were put before a plethora of potential candidates for the position of Prime Minister, with Grant Shapps, Tom Tugendhat, Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak at the time still all in the frame.
Released from his pen, Marcus glanced at the apples in front of each name and carefully selected… the Attorney General for England and Wales, Suella Braverman.
What a silly sausage.
Staying on matters celestial were you able to pick up a printed copy of this morning’s CityAM? It would be most encouraging if this re-emergence of the hardcopy newspaper confounds the conventional wisdom that the economy is contracting and actually thrived.
Their headline, ‘Firms immune to billions in liabilities under current space tech regulations,’ caught my eye.
The crux of the story is that it can be very difficult to identify any country or manufacturer whose decommissioned satellites orbiting the Earth as space debris, with the potential of destroying the International Space Station (‘ISS’), for example can be held responsible.
Evidently, according to the article, given the exceptional speeds the debris circles the earth a single flake of paint was believed to have smashed a window of the ISS in 2016.
Space law was mostly drafted in the 1970s and 1980s during which time China, India, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and even the EU have all joined the US and Russia in making the final frontier a little more crowded with space debris. So who’s liable if there’s a crash in space?
Perhaps I should suggest at the next Partners meeting that we establish a Space law practice?
Or perhaps Mystic Marcus could give us a prediction whether it would ever take off?
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David Little is a Partner at Bishop & Sewell in our expert Corporate & Commercial team. If you would like to contact him please quote Ref CB331 on either 020 7631 4141 or email company@bishopandsewell.co.uk.
The above is accurate as at 22 July 2022. The information above may be subject to change during these ever-changing times.
The content of this note should not be considered legal advice and each matter should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
