Today I am talking with Jerry Hayes a former Tory MP and practising barrister about the purpose and likely impact of the cuts to legal aid being proposed by Chris Grayling, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.
Much has been written about the legal reforms in the dead tree press and the law blogs. (Patrick Torsney has a comprehensive listing of blogs written by lawyers and others from the legal blogging community. )
We discuss the need for the protest by lawyers outside parliament and the likely impact on society in terms of access to justice. It is not about ‘lawyer fatcattery’ – the proposals being put forward by the Lord Chancellor will impact on many in our society in terms of a fair trial and access to good legal representation – and they will, directly or indirectly, affect us all – not least in terms of the ‘Rule of Law’ so lovingly used by the prime minister, foreign secretary and other senior ministers when promoting Britain overseas or lecturing despotic governments abroad.
Jerry Hayes is a former Tory MP who knows the back benches of the Tory party and its workings well. Jerry is also a practising barrister. He is not shy in putting his robust views on Chris Grayling’s reforms – nor is he shy in coming forward to comment sardonically.
Please listen to the podcast – lawyer or non-lawyer. There is a serious message here – but there is also fairly ribald ‘analysis’. It was a most enjoyable podcast to do.
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>>>>Sign the petition – please, if you haven’t already.
The verdict is in: FailingGrayling LC guilty of attempted murder of Legal Aid
Well Charon, your reference to the Government’s so called ‘Rule of Law’ is true enough. The Government talks about the Rule of Law but it doesn’t abide by it.
And it would be a laughing stock if it wasn’t such a serious matter…..
I’m not just talking about the present Government, but Governments past too…..
Look what Thatcher did during the 1980s, but then what about Tony Blair…
And he’s supposed to be a qualified Barrister and he’s married to a Human rights Lawyer. (Is she really a Human Rights Lawyer?)
Then you have Jack Straw who claims to be a Lawyer and was the Home Secretary and the Justice Minister for a while yet he’s broken so many of our laws………
Did these people not realise they were breaking the Law?
Does it take a thief to catch a thief?………Or in this case, does it take a Lawyer to know the law, the roots of that law and how to break that law and get away with it?
Sometime ago our current Rt. Honourable Prime Minister said that we had such a marvellous Legal system that we should sell it to the World…….
Who in their right mind could possibly want to buy it?
(Perhaps that’s why we’re still in recession!…..’Because we’re trying to make goods that nobody in their right mind would want to buy.)
Is it any wonder that ordinary people in this country no longer respect the Government or believe what they say?
As we’ve seen recently, our Police Force is corrupt and rotten to the core and yet almost daily they’re being given more powers of arrest and detention, and Legal Aid and protection from their mishandling of affaires is being withdrawn…..Is this to become a Dictatorship, where nobody dares to question the motives of the Government or their Police Force?……It would seem that way!
And, our modern day Policemen take bribes, kill people in the street and then lie about it or corrupt the evidence,,and then they complain about being called ‘Plebs’ when so many of them are…
But they wonder why they aren’t liked or trusted by the public anymore……
And, what a who-har that was when there’s so much else that wrong with the Police, the Law and the Politicians in this country.
It would be so nice if they concentrated on putting those things right instead of bickering about name calling…
Our Politicians lie to us about Weapons of Mass Destruction,,Recession remedies,and a whole host of other things, and yet they ask us to trust them and believe in them and their ability to deliver an honest system………Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!….etc.
This country is a joke……It’s in recession because it couldn’t make laws to stop Bankers walking away with its money,
But it can make laws to suppress freedom of speech and it can use this recession as an excuse to change laws and remove our Civil and Human rights.
In the same way, it’s using the threat of Terrorism to remove Human rights Laws that very inconveniently stop them doing other things that they want to do…..
It would also seem that it also wants to get away from the claws of Brussels so that it doesn’t have to answer to the the Laws of the European Union…..
I have no doubt that the murder of a British soldier in Woolwich will also strengthen the Government’s will to breach more of our Human Rights laws in the name of National Security. (Of course….What else!)
It wasn’t enough that they made him a target in the first place.but even in death he’ll be used as a pawn in their game of power…..God rest that poor young man’s soul!
Perhaps if we stopped bombing Muslim countries (and stealing their oil),,in the name of Human rights, these Muslim peoples would not be quite so keen to get their own back.
Anyhow, returning to the subject of Legal Aid…….We all know who caused this mess and they should clear it up at their own expense, and not at the expense of ordinary people and their Civil and Human Rights.
Save our Legal Aid and protect our Human Rights……Now!
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