Eton and Oxford educated former Supreme Court judge and historian Jonathan Sumption, as a barrister, successfully represented the billionaire Roman Abramovich against the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Formerly one of the highest paid legal eagles in Britain, this father of three termed his £1.6 million salary “puny” in 2001 in a letter to the Guardian and subsequently charged the extraordinary sum of £800,000 to successfully represent the UK government in what was then then the largest class actions against the state ever in 2005. The trial lasted just four weeks. Sumption speaks French and Italian fluently, owns a chateau in South West France and serves as a director of the English National Opera. He became an outspoken critic of the “hysteria” over the police reaction to coronavirus outbreak in the UK in March 2020. Of this “frightening opponent” with an “icy analytical instinct,” the Guardian’s Wendell Steavenson suggested: “Sumption is a man who cannot stop thinking” whilst the former Labour spinner Alastair Campbell more simply concluded: “Brain the size of a planet.”
Two stories to keep beside you
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Davies of Stamford (AKA Quentin Davies)
Self-serving Quentin Davies described Gordon Brown as “extraordinarily incompetent” before defecting to the Labour Party on the night before the then Chancellor became Prime Minister in June 2007. Mocked for claiming expenses to pay for renovations to a bell tower at his 18th century Lincolnshire mansion, Frampton Hall, in 2008, the then Conservative turned Labour […]
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Archer
Jeffrey’s invented a lot of tales but is rightly renowned for spinning them brilliantly. This former politician wrote some brilliant diaries whilst in prison and now is mostly likely to be found doing charitable deeds. His shepherd’s pie and Krug parties are still the stuff of legends.
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5 comments
Sumption spoke for us all over the police state and government should listen.
He should be ashamed of himself. The police were doing the right thing and he should shut his big mouth. The Supreme Court should have been closed down anyway after the Gina Miller debacle. Idiots, the lot of them.
He was right about Derbyshire Police. Idiotic reaction – especially putting dye in the lake.
It was not the police that dyed the lake it was the local authority, The lake is highly caustic, heavily polluted with sewerage, dead animals etc ,as well as sunken motor vehicles. It is also very cold in summer and so to keep people away they made it look unappealing for reasons of Health and Safety, as they have done for the past several years. They wanted to pump it dry but discovered there was no place to put the water. Not a place for swimmers or ducks.
He is a very clever man… hmm… Too clever by half.