Overtly Covert Lawyer

Please know - when they whip this hard - that the courts can create victims in more than one direction. Victims of crime, *of course*. But, also, victims of mistaken, incorrect and false allegations. And you could be on either side of the courtroom. Don’t forget that, either.

Want to understand the government’s plans to abolish juries for thousands of criminal cases? Ask them for the evidence supporting those plans. There is none. That’s all you need to understand.

If anyone is interested to see some powerfully argued views in favour of keeping jury trials, here is one David Lammy, commenting on a documentary that I did for Channel 4 News when the last government threatened to scrap juries.

I’ve written to every Member of Parliament today. Proposals before Parliament would remove jury trials from offences carrying up to three years in prison. Freedoms rarely vanish overnight. They are chipped away in the name of efficiency. Juries did not cause the crisis in our courts. Removing them will not fix it. When the state seeks to take someone’s liberty for serious offences, the judgment of ordinary citizens should never be optional. This is close to becoming law. Please read the letter. Contact your MP now.

“The move will be highly controversial. Senior criminal justice figures have already described the plan as “the biggest assault on our system of liberty in 800 years” and suggested that it would lead to “star chamber” justice. The Star Chamber, which sat between the 15th and 17th centuries and comprised judges hearing cases alone, has become synonymous with arbitrary and even secretive rulings.”

For a Lord Chancellor to want to save money on a system successive governments have not funded is understandable. But to seek the abolition of jury trial without consultation or argument - is a disgrace to @DavidLammy as it would be to any barrister. thetimes.com/uk/law/article…

Jury trials to be scrapped in most cases to tackle court backlog “The plans would “eviscerate the jury trial as we know it”. One said: “This is basically a Star Chamber or French justice — it is the end of the right to jury trial.” thetimes.com/article/a1a214…

The Governments response to consecutive Governments mismanaging the criminal justice system is to take away your right to a jury trial. It's indicative of a Government that will dispense with some of your most fundamental rights just to save on some cash.

What's @wesstreeting's plan? To add just 5,000 specialty training places and prioritise UK trained doctors for speciality training posts... By 2027... You don't need a degree in maths to know this falls massively short of what is needed.

It's safe to assume that 30,000 will increase this year, as more doctors finish their FY2 training and approach the bottleneck. This is a crisis that will completely spiral out of control without immediate action.

Reposting this as the strikes are due to start again soon. A BMA survey revealed that 52% of resident doctors who responded to it did not have substantive jobs to go to in August 2025. That's over half of the doctors who responded facing unemployment...

@RupertLowe10 There is no objective evidence that suggests the death penalty is a better deterrent than a life sentence. Let's not run the risk of killing innocent people for nothing, hm?

Now is the time to restore the ultimate deterrent. The death penalty.

@TheRealJamieKay Because it's those pesky human rights that's stopping us from stopping them! We should just get rid of them... What have human rights ever done for us, anyway?

Can anyone explain how leaving the ECHR will stop the boats?

See below for a great video that explains the crisis... instagram.com/reel/DNRKdsDg-…

If you don't understand, you really ought to look into this crisis. Doctor strikes are not just about pay. If anything, it's more about the fact thousands of them cannot get a job because of a recruitment system that is not fit for purpose.

Anyone who understands the current Resident Doctor to Specialist Training crisis will share in my utter frustration at seeing a trust grade job being advertised where the "Essential Criteria" is that you must not be an EU or British Citizen...

@lewis_goodall This has many wondering why it was even in the manifesto in the first place. It was completely unnecessary. The political damage it will do to labour if they go back on this pledge will be difficult to repair.

There was a time Labour could have made the argument to raise income taxes and VAT. There was even a moment they could have made the argument to break their manifesto pledge. It’s far too late. Now it would spell disaster for them and for politics. My latest👇 open.substack.com/pub/goodalland…

@Nigel_Farage But what will replace it? We need a codified "bill of rights" before we look at leaving the ECHR. It's important the public knows their rights.

Later today I will introduce legislation in the House of Commons for the UK to leave the ECHR. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

@JohnGlenUK Surely our human rights should be codified, so the public know what they will be, before we even consider leaving the ECHR?

Today I voted yes to a ten-minute rule motion which would bring forward a Bill to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Contrary to some of the rhetoric that surrounds this debate, this is not a vote for fewer rights or weaker protections under the law, it is a vote to put power back into the hands of the British people and their Parliament. A Government is elected on its manifesto, but if governments cannot deliver on their promises because of the ECHR, then we have reached an impasse - major infrastructure projects spend decades tied up in red tape, public services and social housing cannot be for British citizens first, veterans face endless prosecutions over historic allegations. Other mature democracies such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand have never needed the ECHR to ensure that their political systems function effectively, their rights are respected, and their parliaments remain sovereign. This country has a centuries-old common law tradition of liberty under the law that is the envy of the world, exiting the ECHR is about stating our own belief in the highest standards of human rights, while regaining control of the operation of our own laws.