So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodnight…?
John Haythorn is a Partner at Woolcombe Yonge Solicitors in Plymouth. He
has been a partner since 1982 and is Head of the Criminal Department. His firm
have served the local community for many years and John still gets up on a
Saturday morning to act as Court Duty Solicitor. He continues to cover out of
hours police station work.
On Thursday 9th April John had a visit from Gary Streeter the
Conservative candidate for South West Devon who is standing for re-election to
the seat he has occupied for the last 5 years.
It did not take Mr Streeter very long to realise that he could not count
on the vote of John Haythorn bearing in mind the sustained attack on access to
justice that his government have mounted over the last 5 years which has had a
profound effect on Mr Haythorn’s firm.
Mr Streeter’s parting words were that there was going to be a Labour
government and that “Hopefully they will look after you better.”
John Haythorn told
Tuesday Truth “I was very surprised bearing in mind the campaign was only two weeks
old, it was incredible to hear an MP of one of the two major parties conceding
defeat whilst canvassing”
Does Mr Cameron realise that at
least one of his MPs expects Labour to win the next election, do others feel
the same? It would be unsurprising if the Tory attack on essential services was
not translating into difficult conversations for Tory candidates on the
campaign trail.
It is not just lawyers who are much more likely to vote against this
government. Many doctors and teachers feel exactly the same. Retirement levels
in the National Health Service are high whilst recruitment is apparently at an
historic low. With an ageing and expanding population and the barmy
introduction of the internal market and rip off PFI schemes the National Health
Service has never been under more pressure. Suddenly as an election looms
Cameron talks about investment in the Health Service too little too late and to
be funded by as yet unidentified cuts elsewhere as George Osborne has ruled out
an increase in taxation.
Many in the public services including legal
aid lawyers are now looking to what Labour or a progressive alliance of Labour
and others can offer which brings us to last week’s launch of Labour’s Crime
and Justice initiative. The proposed programme is outlined in the pamphlet 'A
Better Plan to Secure Safer Communities"
Labour's disappointingly short section on the
justice system begins:
"Our justice system relies on a fundamental principle: confidence"
Stirring words? Not so much. 'Confidence' is not a principle at all. It is a feeling. At
that stage, some cynics and lovers of English as she is wrote may have stopped feeling confident.
"Our justice system relies on a fundamental principle: confidence"
Stirring words? Not so much. 'Confidence' is not a principle at all. It is a feeling. At
that stage, some cynics and lovers of English as she is wrote may have stopped feeling confident.
However, there are some promising aspects to
the programme. Former DPP Keir Starmer QC, Labour's rising star has said that
Labour must review all the legal aid cuts
within one year of taking office. What those who care about our justice system ask of Labour if the party wins power is that this review is comprehensive and that all agencies involved in delivering justice must be involved in an intensive engagement process. The review must examine the damage to our rule of law that has been wrought through the assault on access to justice which has only served to increase social inequality and has not even achieved the Tories promise of savings because costs have merely been displaced on to other parts of the courts, prisons and social welfare budgets.
within one year of taking office. What those who care about our justice system ask of Labour if the party wins power is that this review is comprehensive and that all agencies involved in delivering justice must be involved in an intensive engagement process. The review must examine the damage to our rule of law that has been wrought through the assault on access to justice which has only served to increase social inequality and has not even achieved the Tories promise of savings because costs have merely been displaced on to other parts of the courts, prisons and social welfare budgets.
Then there is the 'Victims Law' co-authored
by Keir Starmer which is to include a right to review dropped prosecutions. It is of course right that victims’ interests
are properly served by our justice system, the concern for victims appears
genuine but this concern cannot be
allowed to undermine fair trial rights that are at the very heart of our adversarial
system.
As has been said in this blog before the best
way to protect victims’ rights is not to promote them in binary opposition to
the rights of the defendant. A properly funded and resourced criminal justice
is the most effective way to promote the interests of those who are the victims
of crime.
The proposal to brief witnesses as to the
detail of the defence case which is seemingly a part of this “victim centred
“approach is an affront to the interests of justice. The underlying assumption
that every single witness and complainant is truthful and fair-minded is a
fantasy that only political pamphlets and CPS rookies engage in. Those politicians and lawyers who champion
this idea are recklessly underplaying the vast coercive powers of the state which
no defendant and no defence team can ever hope to match. That is why the system
evolved to embed safeguards to ensure equality of arms. That level playing
field is being dug up from under us by the twin assaults of legal aid cuts and
rampant managerialism which is already skewing the fairness of proceedings and
resulting in perverse decision making in which the self defeating mantra of
“case progression” is now routinely trumping the proper interests of justice.
This government has carried out a sustained
assault on education, National Health and Access to Justice under the false
premise of austerity. But those people who have devoted their professional
lives to the public services have not given up the fight and their continued
efforts to take the fight to the government and to enlist the help of wider
society have not gone unnoticed.
On Monday the Guardian published the results
of a YouGov poll which found that 82% of the respondents believed that access
to justice was a fundamental right
On the same day the Guardian helped to launch
Legal Aid Team! An animation celebrating legal aid and lampooning its enemies voiced
by amongst others Maxine
Peake, Joanna Lumley, Sally Hawkins, Simon Callow and Kevin Eldon.
Next week on 23rd April we have
the Vote for Justice Rally.
We have had two and a half years of meetings,
walk outs, demonstrations, lobbying, briefings and legal action. On May 7th
we get the chance to send another kind of message to the government. Many of us
will be voting with issues of access to justice and the rule of law firmly in
mind when the X goes in the box. Do come
along to the Vote for Justice Rally to discuss what happens after the votes are
counted because whatever the composition of the government we will still be confronted
with a criminal justice system which is less and less able to ensure a fair
outcome and a civil justice system which since April 2013 has been engineered
to deny millions of people representation and redress in court.
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