In a recent episode of the Alas Vine & Hitchens podcast, columnists Sarah Vine and Peter Hitchens fiercely criticized David Lammy’s recently leaked proposal to eliminate juries as a measure to address court backlogs.
This controversial suggestion emerged from a memo penned by the Justice Secretary and leaked to The Times. In the document, Lammy advocated for the removal of the right to a jury trial in the UK.
Lammy proposed that jury trials should be exclusive to the most severe offenses, such as murder, manslaughter, and rape.
This proposal comes as the justice system faces an unprecedented backlog of nearly 80,000 cases, with some trials being scheduled as far into the future as 2029.
Although acknowledging the necessity of addressing this backlog, Vine expressed concerns on the Daily Mail podcast that removing juries could expose individuals to judgments from ‘politicized’ judges.
“Consider the Southport riots,” Vine remarked.
A memo written by the Justice Secretary was leaked to The Times this week, in which Lammy argued there should be ‘no right’ to a jury trial in the UK
While acknowledging the case backlog must be tackled, Vine told the Daily Mail podcast that scrapping juries would leave people vulnerable to ‘politicised’ judges
‘Compared to subsequent demonstrations that turned nasty, there was a definite bias towards giving those involved in the Southport riots longer sentences.
‘It was probably the case that judges favoured the government while making their decisions.
‘My worry is that if we take away the jury service, then you’ve got no buffer between politicised judges and the people.’
Under the plans, up to 75% of Crown Court defendants would lose their right to a jury trial, with only those facing sentences over five years keeping the protection.
Hitchens was equally damning of Lammy’s proposals, arguing successive governments’ failure to fund the criminal justice system had caused the backlog crisis.
He said Lammy shouldn’t punish the country because the government had behaved like a ‘buffoon’.
‘Why should our constitution suffer because governments have made a mess of the criminal justice system?’ Hitchens asked.
‘If there’s a huge backlog, that’s the government’s fault for pursuing stupid crime policies.
‘This Labour government seems full of people who have an awful lot of bad ideas. Those bad ideas are emerging bit-by-bit as time goes by. They didn’t put any of them in the manifesto people voted for.
Hitchens was equally damning of Lammy’s proposals, arguing successive governments’ failure to fund the criminal justice system had caused the backlog crisis
The leaked memo has been described by senior legal figures as ‘the biggest assault on our system of liberty in 800 years’
‘I worry that far too few people will care about this. People think criminal justice concerns only those who deserve to be in court. It never crosses their minds they themselves might fetch up there.’
The leaked memo has been described by senior legal figures as ‘the biggest assault on our system of liberty in 800 years’.
Criminal Bar Association chair Riel Karmy-Jones KC said the plans ‘smell like a co-ordinated campaign against public justice’, while the Law Society described them as ‘an extreme measure’ that goes ‘too far’.
Hitchens accused Lammy of having been ‘got at’ by the Treasury, with the move driven by cost-cutting rather than justice.
‘We have to reconstruct a criminal justice system which has been appallingly underfunded for ages’, the author declared.
‘Justice is expensive, but it’s vital. A society without justice is a society not worth living in.’
To hear the full debate, plus the columnists’ rage against the NHS’s decision to restart giving children puberty blockers, search for Alas Vine & Hitchens now, wherever you get your podcasts.
