Nice article about Barbara Rich here - 'Retired barrister drawing the ire of Good Law Projects's Jolyon Maugham'

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

The retired barrister drawing the ire of Good Law Project’s Jolyon Maugham I think this is a gift link, generously provided by Barbara on X. Good article. She is so measured and sensible!

That's a really interesting article. Thanks for sharing. I hadn't come across her before.

Bump.

Sadly it’s behind a paywall. Can you give us a summary?

The gift link works for me.

Just click on the cross in the corner of the big white square in the middle of the screen and it goes away.

That's a shame, the gift link must have expired. Briefly, it's an interview with Barbara about her recent experiences being targeted by the loathsome Jolyon Maugham. Her tweets are shown and his various comments are carefully transcribed and I would imagine that most sane people can see who's the one to listen to. She pointed out that the GLP was asking for donations on the back of their petition about Jason Arday, which was true, although Maugham denied it and then had to issue the most grudging apology ever seen.

An AI-enabled search came back with a very well written description (hopefully the details are correct):

Barbara Rich, a recently retired Chancery barrister, and Jolyon Maugham, founder of the Good Law Project, are sworn adversaries who have engaged in a public feud on social media since 2019. The conflict escalated in August 2026 when Maugham dismissed Rich as a "troll in polite white grandmother clothes" after she criticized his organization's fundraising tactics regarding the Jason Arday petition.

Rich, who describes herself as a skeptic of the Good Law Project’s political activism, accused Maugham of "high outrage, low effort activism" and misleading the public about donations. Maugham retaliated with insults that Rich condemned as a "trifecta of ageism, sexism and racism," while he later acknowledged she was "right about this narrow point" regarding a donation button on the petition page. Despite their professional history and Maugham’s past work as a tax silk, their relationship is defined by mutual hostility and public sparring over legal ethics and political campaigning.

That summary is to my mind very unfair to Ms Rich, who has been an absolute model of restraint and professionalism in her comments on the GLP and Maugham. A great many other lawyers who know her and her work at first hand have said as much on her X feed. The summary makes it sound very much as if there's fault on both sides, which is simply not true.

Add a full stop after uk in the link so that you get co.uk./

Thanks for the tip Nauticant, it worked for me when I added the full stop.

Here's a quote which gives an enticing taste of the article:

"This disagreement stemmed from a row over the Good Law Project’s most recent cause célèbre: a petition calling for an immediate public inquiry over the death of Jason Arday, the former University of Cambridge professor found dead earlier this month after he faced widespread allegations of plagiarism and fabricating aspects of his life story and professional achievements.
While Rich describes the case as “a very sad story” that “does need to be forensically explored – and will be at an inquest”, she took issue with the Good Law Project fundraising off the back of their Arday petition and felt Maugham’s language on the subject is “hyperbolic”.
On Wednesday last week, Maugham went one step further, launching a new campaign to “take the fight right to the throats” of the British press over Arday’s death, running a paid-for advertising campaign that will target readers of newspapers, including this one, encouraging them to cancel their subscriptions.
On X, Rich had criticised the project’s Arday petition as “high outrage, low effort activism, in both cases enabling the [Good Law Project] to add names and contact details to its database to promote its activities and solicit public donations for them”. Asked by the BBC about Rich’s post, Maugham shot back: “I think it is disgraceful for the BBC to take lies from social media about our fundraising off the back of Jason Arday.” He added, in no uncertain terms, that the Good Law Project had not fundraised in connection with Arday’s death.
This was not quite true. The Arday petition did in fact feature a prominent button soliciting general donations for the Good Law Project, which was quietly deleted following the interview"

It's so lovely to be able to read all the comments under the article.

There are some absolute classics such as, "the "Good" Law project is the best example of an oxymoron run by a moron."

And from Barbara Rich herself, "I think he’s inflicted more flesh wounds on English prose in his time than he has ever done on urban wildlife."

Oh these are MARVELLOUS. Thank you for making my day.

Thanks for those who have summarised or copied parts, I couldn't get the link to work, even following nauticant s advice, wish I was more techy!

Maybe this will work?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk./gift/8dc48d19045a69f5

@Pudmyboy I have posted a working link. It's really worth clicking on for the comments underneath. Barbara has been commenting and she's absolutely brilliant. I wonder if she's one of us?

The funny thing is that, all things considered, she is actually quite nice about him.

She clearly rates him as a tax lawyer and disagrees with the idea that the GLP is just a grift on the grounds that he could earn so much more if he had stayed in tax.

However, she has dared to call his campaigning high outrage and low effort, suggesting that he is misleading donors about its effectiveness, and I suspect that in his more sane moments he knows that she is right.

He is going after Gove now.

x.com/jwomencount2/status/2095493853323186592

JM's public statements seem to be referring more and more to other people's whiteness whilst seemingly overlooking his own.
Is this an indication that he may be coming out as transracial soon?

It's hilarious that at Arday's protest Maugham said, 'this is a time for white people to listen' and then he proceeded to wang on interminably, like he does.

And he tried to insult Barbara by calling her a 'rich, white grandma' when he might well have been a rich, white grandad himself by now if two out of his three daughters weren't taking testosterone.

In today's Gove speech (linked above) it looks like he talks about 'polite white society'?

ETA

Historically, I'm not sure if his speeches include as many white and whiteness points. Is this all post the Arday petition?

I was amazed by that. There he is, a man who’s picture, with his interesting trousers and architect’s glasses, could be the dictionary definition of upper middle class London based white man, bloviating on about ‘time for white people to listen’.
I can’t decide if it’s a complete lack of self awareness, sheer audacity, or a man whose motivations are little more than a bellwether of the zeitgeist. Probably a bit of all three.
I’d hate to have him move in on any topic I cared passionately about. He’s the divorced dad’s skinny jeans of activism.

I've followed Barbara on Twitter for a good while now. She's interesting and clever and I've learnt a lot from her about the law. A contrast with JM, whose legal expertise seems sadly far less obvious from his online contributions.

I keep getting a pop-up obscuring most of the article, a subscription offer that I can't get rid of, a message saying subscribe to continue reading.
Thank you for trying though!
(Edited due to error)

This is what I see