Conservative Manifesto - whatever happened to justice?

We are well and truly into the General Election Campaign season. The major parties traditionally compete for our votes on the basis of – anything you can do; we can do better. That has certainly been the case this time around until we get to the crucial matter of our justice system and in particular, access to justice.

The Labour Party’s proposals have been modest, compared with of the rest of their manifesto, but positive. They have pledged to reinstate legal aid for early advice in key areas such as housing, debt, immigration and family law. They have also promised to develop a network of law centres –

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/labour-reaffirms-legal-aid-pledges-in-election-manifesto/5102259.article

The Conservative Party manifesto, sadly, demonstrates their contempt for our justice system. On legal aid and access to justice there is an almost deafening silence. They promise to get around to it at some point.

On Criminal Justice there is a familiar populism. They promise 20,000 more police officers and a ‘fair justice system’ that stands for the law-abiding majority.  In other words, they will be tough on crime. The problem is that they have no plan at all about how to address our criminal justice system that is in a state of collapse. Defendants, witnesses and victims are waiting years for trial dates. Cases are not adequately prepared because of a lack of resources within the CPS. Every week, courts are sitting empty due to a lack of judges –

https://thestevecornforthblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/justice-on-verge-of-collapse-lets-pile.html

All MPs were sent a free copy of the Secret Barrister’s – Stories of the Law and How it is Broken. Has Mr Johnson read it? If he has read it, has he not understood it? If he has understood it, does he simply not care. Hence the reference to Homer Simpson! Unless these fundamental problems are addressed, then these are empty promises. In fact, they are worse than empty, they are dangerous.

What about Civil Justice. We are going to have a Democracy Commission!! This will look at ‘updating’ the Human Rights Act. This has been a familiar refrain from the Conservative since the Act came into force. Unless they want to take us out of the European Convention on Human Rights, they cannot change it.

https://thestevecornforthblog.blogspot.com/2019/11/there-are-many-areas-of-our-legal.html

There is also the anticipated reaction to the unanimous Supreme Court decision that the PM acted unlawfully when he prorogued parliament. The manifesto promises to ensure that judicial review is not used to conduct politics or create unnecessary delay. This is another way of saying that they will do all they can to ensure that the law is not used to prevent them from doing what they like, when they like!

For those who are interested the whole manifesto is here- 

https://assets-global.website-files.com/5da42e2cae7ebd3f8bde353c/5dda924905da587992a064ba_Conservative%202019%20Manifesto.pdf

And that, as they say is that. The law will become even more broken – possibly beyond repair.

But they will get Brexit done…honest…