Jolyon Maugham lets slip

This sounds entirely made up to me.

Yes I did wonder that. You can kill someone with a single "lucky" blow - I'm an A&E GP and have seen it a number of times after pub fights etc. But much more likely is many blows, lots of screaming from the animal and lots of blood. Surely his neighbours would have heard?

I do wonder whether it's a lie, but he can't admit it because then people will (rightly) question his veracity on everything else. Also, lying about it is arguably even weirder than doing it.

An injured animal ought to be put out of its misery and I’ve read on the other thread about people snapping the necks of injured animals and felt a bit ashamed of my squeamishness.

I have had to kill a few injured animals when living in rural Oz and the US, with the nearest vets or RSPCA-equivalents many hours away. I would defend anyone who kills an animal while trying to relieve suffering. In JM's case, though, the fox wasn't injured- if it had been, he would assuredly have mentioned it by now, with all his back-tracking. And he was in central London, with easy access to a vet - even on Boxing Day, there are vets in call and JM can easily afford one.

What he did was unnecessary and cruel.

He seems to be assuming awful things about foxes. It’s complete bigotry to assert that foxes harm hens. And hurtful and wrong to be frightened of them. They just want to be accepted in JMs hen house.

Pointing to very few, isolated incidents of foxes allegedly attacking chickens and being bitey is just stirring up hatred for vulnerable carnivores.

Yes I think that’s right nettie. He’s a clunking idiot. Tone deaf. No judgement. Arrogant. Wilfully so when it comes to women’s issues. Interesting though that sees he’s being excoriated re the fox and starts explaining and backtracking and reporting himself to the RSPCA. He has only hardened his position on women. Perhaps he should report himself to Fair Play for Women

I think the tone of his original tweet does suggest his judgement is faulty because it is quite jokey. His later tweets seem to be back tracking and blaming critics for their lack of understanding about how threatening a large urban fox is. Similar pattern to his tweets about transgender rights. Another example where dismissing women's concerns seems to typify a broader 'shut up, I know best' attitude

twitter.com/Lewis_S36/status/1210296579430768640

This is the correct procedure for foxes caught in netting in your garden.

Also I agree I couldn’t club a fox to death but I think that’s my failing. An injured animal ought to be put out of its misery and I’ve read on the other thread about people snapping the necks of injured animals and felt a bit ashamed of my squeamishness.

.

You don’t have to be especially brilliant to be a silk (know one very well). JM has not demonstrated much insight to me. His ludicrous position on women is inexcusable.

However I do think this fox stuff is silly. Lots of keyboard warriors going after him because they don’t like posh lawyers, Remainers, whatever it is they think he stands for.

I frankly despise the man for his attitudes to women but he had a fox, probably caught in netting, probably wild with terror, possibly injured and be despatched it. I don’t think he was intending to boast - I think he was saying ‘ugh - what a weird start to the day’. He probably made a mistake but I really can’t get that upset about it. One post on the other thread reads “Lock the scum up”.

This weird reaction with the story now going global is just as daft as the reaction to JKR with people threatening to cancel her, suicide threats, dramatics everywhere.

Ah yes, another man of good works. So many of them. Lots and lots of notable, noble, bright men doing immense good (but we must overlook the bits that are ‘unbecoming’).

Finding it amusing that in a a digital age you are naive enough to think that some pompous stuffed shirt will be lauded through history for a point of law and not for twattjng foxes.

Gone a bit cryptic as my screenshots won't post!

Snape

Sadly, everyone has already forgotten about the proroguing of parliament - Johnson has won an election since then. Nobody cares about that. People do seem to care about the fox. Sorry. Most people really love animals, and really don't want to hear tax lawyers laughing about clubbing them to death with a baseball bat in the garden on Boxing Day.

Wonder what he did with fox after beating it.

Perhaps there's another reason why he is cross with JKR?

Jolyon thought that the women's rights twitterers could pile on? Ha, he hadn't seen what the animal lovers can do to a man on twitter.

What an idiot.

That will go down in history, his idiotic tweet this morning will not.

My bet is that the two, in any future article about him, will be entwined for evermore.

What's the old saying? That it takes ten years to build a good reputation and ten minutes to lose it?

Not that JM had an unblemished reputation to begin with as far as many people were concerned.

All his "good work" will be overshadowed by #JolyonTheFoxKiller now, regardless of how intelligent he is. He's front page news, just discussed on R4 Today.

Jolyon thought that the women's rights twitterers could pile on? Ha, he hadn't seen what the animal lovers can do to a man on twitter.

I do stand by my assessment of him as slightly psychopathic - to be able to club a trapped wild animal with a baseball bat - well, it takes a certain personality to be able to do that. I couldn't do it. Plus to tweet about it, clearly having a laugh about it - well, empathy bypass and a complete lack of good judgement.

Poor judgement re today’s tweet - I agree, that’s why I described it as a dick move.
But he did really important work in securing the Supreme Court’s declaration that Johnson unlawfully prorogued Parliament.

So if someone does important work (in your opinion) they’re good to beat an animal to death?
And I’m sure that animal was quiet, and not in distress and trying to escape a mad man in a kimono with a weapon.

Yikes.

They're talking about it on Petrie Hosken's show on BBC Radio London now.

@Confessions, sorry but that’s a fatuous post. If you had any idea what it takes to get silk in tax law, you would not suggest that he is not bright.
Poor judgement re today’s tweet - I agree, that’s why I described it as a dick move.
But he did really important work in securing the Supreme Court’s declaration that Johnson unlawfully prorogued Parliament. That will go down in history, his idiotic tweet this morning will not.

@Snowjive2 Mmm it actually seems like he spends 75% of his time on Twitter. I marvel he has any time left at all to read briefs.

I don't think he's bright and he obviously has terrible judgment. Some people are very good at maths but their technical smarts don't mean they are intelligent.

“ A twatty tweet about an urban fox is not, but doesn’t diminish the good work he has done.”

Ya reckon? The pro-trans Twittersphere appears to believe jk_rowling deserves destitution and death for a mild defence of material reality.

But a man beating a small animal to death is “twatty”?

I have had to kill a chicken and a kitten, who’s suffering deserved of immediate relief. There was nothing but sadness in both instances - not things I would feel like boasting in public about.

Snowjive one might have thought that as a lawyer he ought to have more respect for the law. Or does he get free pass to club to death a certain number of animals because he's done some public interest work?

He’s saying he couldn’t try to free it because it would be too dangerous.

Poor thing was a fox, not a leopard. A pair of sturdy gloves and some wire cutters, or even scissors would have got the job done.

On the one hand a man who thinks he’s a hero for berating women, and in the other a coward who would rather get his jollies by bashing a helpless creature to death, rather than risk a nip. It’s a pretty acccurate, self-depiction of your classic misogynist.

I’ve seen videos of people rescuing bears and sharks, and yes, leopards, out of compassion and courage.

As to the kimono, well, there’s being funny and then there’s, well, who knows really. Perhaps he could have asked for his very own dressing gown for Xmas? Perhaps for his birthday after his wife finds it difficult to get the bloodstains out of her kimono.

Jolyon is world news! On the front page of The Age website (Melbourne, Australia).