Volcanic eruption and Recused Attorney General

A sunny day as Jane and I finally were able to tackle setting the Quekett Bulletin. This evening we went to the Milton Artists and Craftists. At the last moment, I decided to take along my soft pastels and A3 coloured paper block. Confronted with an angry red page, and with Etna currently erupting in Sicily, I chose a night scene of an active volcano.

The equally heated topic of Brexit naturally arose in conversation as one of our group is in the unenviable position of being an EU citizen, married to a Briton, who has lived here a significant part of her life, yet has no security of permanent residence. Current statistics show that more than a quarter of the applications for permanent residency by EU citizens are refused (28%), according to a study by the Liberal Democrats.

The House of Lords decision that there should be an amendment to the Brexit Bill is still causing heated debate - in fact it is featuring on the TV program Question Time at this very moment of writing. However, it is still likely that the amendment will be ignored by the House of Commons. With 3 million EU residents in the UK and an increasingly labyrinthine application procedure, the real fact is that the system could not cope properly with applications on this scale.

President Trumps' Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, had to publicly remove himself from any hearing into the investigation of Trumps campaign. This was after admitting that he had talked to Russian representatives, albeit as a Senator with defence interests, and yet failing to mention it during his Senate confirmation hearings. As part of this news, I learnt a new word, recuse. The meaning is actually deliciously double sided in this instance. It is a North American word that can mean:

A. Challenge (a judge or juror) as unqualified to perform legal duties because of a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.

B. Recuse oneself (of a judge)- to excuse oneself from a case because of a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.

So on the one hand, Jeff Sessions is clearly simultaneously unqualified to perform his legal duties AND has to excuse himself, all because of a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.