He would have been disastrous for his own defence on the stand. Just look at the way he twists stuff in his speeches and statements - he gets away with it because no-one picks him up on it (or if they do he just talks bollocks over them). He wouldn't have got away with that in court - it would...
To be fair to him, I don't think he has actually claimed since the trial that he wasn't 'allowed' to testify. He said something along the lines that he really wanted to testify, but was advised not to, because people would have been out to get him, and so if he had testified that horrible judge...
On the question of unanimity - they had to be unanimous on the charge of falsifying records. And they had to be unanimous on the charge of doing this with the intent to conceal a crime.
Where they didn't have to be unanimous was on deciding what that crime intending to be concealed...
You can still achieve the same as a POA by applying to the court of protection for a deputyship https://www.gov.uk/become-deputy
Takes longer, and costs more - but worth doing for the long-term.
Although time-wise, we have recently completed POAs for my aunt - and it must have taken well over...
There isn't actually a rule about this - it's just another of our 'traditions' that members of the same party sit together. I suspect what will happen is Labour will fill up the whole 'Government' side - then start down the other side from the end furthest away from the speaker. Then the...
Used to play a huge amount when younger. We had a table at our 'Boys Club' in Portslade where we'd play runaroud - ie: about 15 of us having to run round the table to take the next shot. Played for years every lunchtime at work as they had a table in the attic. It was a little constricting...