Guido must commend Justice Secretary Robert Buckland for knowing precisely how to wind up Jolyon Maugham. He will shortly announce reforms to online legal fundraising, a practice most famously used by Jolyon’s Good Law Project. The changes come amid concerns the racket is ripe for exploitation of donors who may be unaware what exactly they’re funding. As one government source pithily explains:

“‘You could donate to fund a case seeking stronger protections for animals such as foxes only to see your money end up indirectly bankrolling a case to make it easier for children to get medical treatment helping them change gender.”

“Lawfare” is politics by other means; we’ve seen rich Europhiles try for years to frustrate the outcome of the referendum in the Courts. Inevitably, as a wealthy elite minority is increasingly at odds with a populist government, this is not an unexpected development. Responding to the clearly-targeted move, Jolyon told the Mail on Sunday that crowdfunding “puts into the hands of normal people a modest tool with which to try to keep government on the straight and narrow”. Guido looks forward to this modest tool being cut down to size soon…

UPDATE: Jolyon has since written a blog claiming the move is a “deceitful and bullying attempt to target a critic”. A government source responds:

“Typically, the fox-clubber thinks this is all about him and that the government are petrified of his vanity project. In reality, he’s an occasional and minor administrative irritant and what we’re looking at are reforms to a sector he himself suggests could be the next mis-selling scandal.”

“It is telling that he fails to address the issue raised about the potential for costs being awarded and then recycled into a totally separate cause– something several of his colleagues at the Bar have sounded the alarm over”