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PODCAST

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics

Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC

Covering the critical intersections of law and politics in the UK with expert commentary on high-profile legal cases, political controversies, prisons and sentencing, human rights law, current political events and the shifting landscape of justice and democracy. With in-depth discussions and influential guests, Double Jeopardy is the podcast that uncovers the forces shaping Britain’s legal and political present and future. -What happens when law and politics collide? -How do politics shape the

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All Episodes

61:08

UK Law and Politics 2025-2026: What’s Happened and...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2026/01/07

To start the New Year, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined once again by the UK’s leading legal journalist and author of the daily blog, A Lawyer Writes, Joshua Rozenberg, to review some key issues in UK law and politics during 2025 and to look forward to likely developments in 2026.Against the background of a polarised, often ill-informed, debate around migration, asylum and Article 8 of the ECHR, where does the embarrassing case of Alaa Abd El-Fattah fit in this confused, fevered

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39:30

Living in the Southern Ocean: Part 2- Empire, Neglect...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2026/01/01

In Part 2 of their discussion with retired New Zealand High Court Judge and former Chief Crown Prosecutor for Auckland, Simon Moore KC, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC discuss the extraordinary Pitcairn Island sexual abuse trials which took place between 2004-2006 and in which Simon headed the prosecution team. What finally triggered the investigation into what was eventually revealed to be institutionalised, decades long gross sexual abuse of children and young women on this tiny, remote volcanic

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31:41

Living in the Southern Ocean: Part 1- Blazing a Trail...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/12/27

In Part 1 of a special holiday release of Double Jeopardy, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by the former New Zealand High Court Judge and Chief Crown Prosecutor for Auckland, Simon Moore KC. At a time when comparisons are often made between the Leveson/Lammy proposals and the major reforms to New Zealand criminal justice system in 2011 flowing from its Criminal Procedure Act 2011 and the Victims of Crime Reform Act 2011, Simon gives his thoughts on the UK government’s proposed changes

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38:48

Mr Lammy Goes to Strasbourg- and our Christmas...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/12/17

As the UK joins 26 other Council of Europe States in calling for a rebalancing of the European Convention on Human Rights as between the individual rights of irregular migrants and the public interest in defending freedom and security, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC discuss the political imperatives which drove Justice Secretary David Lammy and Attorney General Lord Hermer to attend a potentially highly significant meeting in Strasbourg designed to head off the rise of populist, anti-ECHR parties

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43:10

Swapping Judges For Juries: Will This Really Be...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/12/12

Are the Government’s proposals radically to reduce a citizen’s right to trial by jury a “swift and fair plan to get justice for victims”, as the MoJ press release declared on 2nd December, or a poorly conceived, confused and untested set of measures which will have no real impact on the Crown Court backlog or the general, long term crisis that afflicts our once admired criminal justice system? What is the explanation for the significant difference between the leaked Lammy memorandum - which

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1:18

We'll Be Right Back: This Week's Episode Will Be Out...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/12/10

Hello listeners, Thanks to bad weather delaying Tim’s flight from the USA, this week’s episode with Riel Karmy-Jones KC and Chris Henley KC will be released on Friday, 12 December. We appreciate your patience!

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32:05

Are the Courts Flinching on Article 8? And Who’s...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/12/03

Does the Judgment of the Court of Appeal in the Palestinian Family case of IA & others v. Home Secretary - https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/IA.MediaSummary.Final_.pdf - indicate that the Judges are submitting to the political pressure to weaken the protection that Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights provides for the concept of “family life”? In asserting that the Home Secretary’s policy is a matter for her and for the UK Government; that this was a question of

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42:50

Is the Right To Jury Trial Just History? And is the...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/11/28

As the Courts Minister, Sarah Sackman, announces the Government’s intention to enact most of the recommendations in Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, including the abolition of the right to jury trial in cases of serious, complex fraud, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC discuss the devastating attack on Leveson’s justification for Judge alone fraud trials launched by the former Resident Judge at Southwark Crown Court, Geoffrey Rivlin KC, in an article on the Red Lion

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45:14

Trump Versus The BBC, and Shabana Mahmood’s Asylum...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/11/19

Is Trump’s threat to sue the BBC for $1billion in a Florida Court over the Panorama documentary just another example of his baseless, abusive use of the Courts to intimidate media companies? And should the BBC submit to his intimidation given the uncertainties of a Florida jury trial? Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by leading media law Silk, Gavin Millar KC, to discuss what went wrong in the editing process behind the Panorama documentary and the differences between US and UK

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37:41

Labour Goes To Denmark - And Why Are We Releasing...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/11/12

Is Shabana Mahmood’s proposed overhaul of immigration policies, modelled on Denmark’s stringent system, likely to go too far? As the Justice Secretary sends officials to Denmark to study its famously strict asylum rules, is there a danger that a tougher approach will simply risk the Labour party losing votes to the Greens and Crobyn on its left? Or might a less liberal approach save Labour from Reform UK?In this episode of Double Jeopardy, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC provide expert legal

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44:49

Emily Thornberry and the Great China Spy Trial Mystery

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/11/05

Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Dame Emily Thornberry, to discuss the evidence given to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy by key individuals involved in the decisions to prosecute and ultimately abandon the Chinese Spying case (R v Cash and Berry). In a highly unusual public examination of the collapse of a politically sensitive prosecution only weeks before it was due to commence, the Joint Committee subjected

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44:28

Lifting the Lid on the Home Office: Crashed,...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/10/29

Does Shabana Mahmood, like Dominic Cummings before her, believe that the Home Office is a broken, dysfunctional bureaucratic institution that needs a radical overhaul? In this week’s episode Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC discuss these and other questions with the former BBC Home Affairs Correspondent and former adviser to Yvette Cooper, Danny Shaw. The trio respond to the publication of the 2023 review of the effectiveness of the Home Office commissioned by former Home Secretary Suella

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48:48

Why Did The Chinese Spying Case Really Collapse?...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/10/22

With the China spying case continuing to generate headlines, mystery and yet more uncertainty surrounding the true reason for the DPP’s decision to drop charges against Chris Cash and Chris Berry under the Official Secrets Act 1911, and Double Jeopardy having been sent an anonymously leaked copy of his expert witness statement, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC secure an exclusive interview with Professor Kerry Brown, the former UK diplomat, academic and China expert who was due to be a defence

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35:39

Can Jenrick Go Any Lower? Plus Palestine Action,...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/10/15

In the wake of Robert Jenrick’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference likening Attorney General Lord Hermer KC to a “Mafia lawyer”, accusing him and Keir Starmer of treason in relation to the Chagos Islands agreement and calling for the sacking of “activist” Judges together with the return of political appointments to our judiciary, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC ask whether Jenrick’s disgusting, populist bile make him the Stephen Miller of UK politics. They also debate the Government’s

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45:06

ECHR Rights, Cruelty, Chinese Whispers, and the...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/10/08

After a brief explanation for the non-appearance of last week’s episode (severe back pain and hard-core painkillers) Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC review Reform’s rapidly evaporating policy agenda, Keir Starmer’s rhetorical revival and Kemi Badenoch’s predictable decision to dump the European Convention on Human Rights and repeal the Human Rights Act having taken legal advice from Lord Wolfson KC. They then revisit the mysterious – and as yet unexplained – decision by the DPP to abandon the

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42:53

Lucy Letby’s Trial Strategy Under the Spotlight, Why...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/09/24

With Parliament in recess till mid-October, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC reflect on a number of issues which have dominated the headlines over the past week. After a brief apology from Tim for misquoting in last week’s episode Lord Hermer’s evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee on the issue of reform of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Ken and Tim discuss what may lie behind the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) decision suddenly to drop serious charges

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46:58

Peter Mandelson, Graham Linehan, Palestine Action,...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/09/17

The recent mass arrests at Palestine Action protests, Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally, the turmoil generated by the sacking of Angela Rayner and Peter Mandelson and the political fall-out from the arrest of Graham Linehan all contribute to a mood of crisis in UK law and politics. Can a weakened and wounded Government reverse the tide?Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC begin with an obituary to their Matrix chambers colleague and friend, Conor Gearty KC, the esteemed Professor and

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47:50

Small Boats and the Irresistible Rise of Reform UK:...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/09/10

Unpack one of the most dramatic moments in the life of the Labour government so far: Angela Rayner’s resignation, a sweeping cabinet reshuffle, and Shabana Mahmood’s arrival as Home Secretary. With David Lammy moved to Justice and Yvette Cooper shifted to the Foreign Office, what does this signal for immigration, asylum, and criminal justice reform?To explore the current events in UK politics, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by Sir Jonathan Jones KCB KC, former Treasury Solicitor,

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29:44

Mr Farage Goes To Washington: The Truth About The ECHR

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/09/03

Does the ECHR really block the UK’s ability to implement effective immigration/asylum policies? And why is Nigel Farage doing his best to persuade the foreign US government and its increasingly far right tech bro cronies, to bully the UK over the Online Safety Act, so recently passed by Parliament? And how does this behaviour align with his loudly professed patriotism and promotion of British sovereignty? This week on Double Jeopardy, hosts Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC provide expert legal

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30:10

Farage, Tolerating Torture, and Mass Deportations:...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/08/28

Can the UK tighten its asylum policies without abandoning its commitments to human rights? Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC provide expert legal commentary on the Bell Hotel Judgment and its far-reaching impact on the government’s asylum policy. They examine the legal reasoning, the clash between local and central government, and the Court of Appeal challenge now underway. The conversation also covers the limited turnout at far-right protests, new polling showing immigration dominating public

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133 results

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