Cameron, May, Johnson and now Truss; the fine figures that have led this country since 2010. Such an accumulation of prime ministers in a dozen years makes us more Italian than Italy when it comes to political upheavals. When it comes to Secretaries of State for Justice/Lord Chancellor the occupants of said post over the same period were as frequently deployed as the substitutes in international Rugby Union. When one considers the disarray and lack of cohesive thought within that ministry it is no surprise that it is currently appearing to self destruct in front of us. Barristers have finally had enough of being paid a pittance for their services within the criminal courts system but expected to provide a first class service for which they have taken an oath so to do. Judges by their own volition ration their sitting days owing to impossible rules on the taxation of pensions in addition to government deliberately limiting courts` functioning timetables to reduce spending. Magistrates courts` staff have planned strike action later this month. Magistrates` local independence has been absorbed into direct control by Her Majesty`s Courts and Tribunals Service their representative court committees and national bodies eliminated yet the farce of a pursuit of "local diversity" is pursued nevertheless. Two year delays in crown court trials are now commonplace with corresponding delays at the lower court and Covid being the parroted reply to criticism such response being used as an alibi for deliberate under funding of the whole system from police via probation to prison.
This debacle started in 2010 when Kenneth Clarke proudly declared that he was the first cabinet minister to fulfil his part of the austerity programme by slashing the Justice Department budget by 23%. Thus began the closing of half the country`s courts. And so the decline to the sorry situation today when a former occupant of Clarke`s office somehow being promoted above her competence ( contrary to Peter`s Principle) enters number 10. The history of how she and the other holders of the office have ruined a system a millennium in the making does not make for happy reading.
After Clarke`s time in office came Chris (failing) Grayling to Petty France: perhaps the worst Lord Chancellor of modern times. Earlier in 2010 it was reported by the Daily Telegraph that an IP address associated with the Parliamentary estate had been discovered attempting to remove references to his role in the expenses scandal from his Wikipedia page. They attempted the edit to remove the information five times and later received a warning from a Wikipedia administrator. It was Grayling who proposed cuts to legal aid which were widely criticised by the legal profession. In May 2013, 90 Queen's Counsels signed a letter sent to The Daily Telegraph that branded the cuts "unjust", as they would seriously undermine the rule of law. 6 January 2014 saw the first strike in British history by barristers and solicitors in protest at the cuts.In February 2014, he introduced the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 to the House of Commons. In October 2014, Grayling unveiled the Conservative Party's proposals for reforms to human rights in order to curb the European Court of Human Rights' influence over British court rulings, whilst honouring the text of the original Convention on Human Rights in a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.In January 2015 data relating to three fatal police shootings including details of marksmen and the deceased's family were lost in the post by the Justice Department. According to The Guardian it was particularly embarrassing for Grayling as the Government was claiming it needed to access personal data to deal with terrorism and could keep it securely. The data included details of the Mark Duggan shooting incident which had triggered the 2011 England riots.
After the 2015 general election Cameron promoted Michael Gove as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor in his newly formed cabinet. He was praised in December 2015 for scrapping the courts fee introduced by his predecessor Grayling whose departure from office was greeted with unashamed relief by all in the legal world including magistrates who had had to pronounce to offenders his ridiculous newly imposed court charges. The fees had been heavily criticised for, among other things, causing innocent people to plead guilty out of financial concerns. Gove removed the 12-book limit on prison books introduced by Grayling arguing that books increased literacy and numeracy, skills needed for making prisoners a "potential asset to society". The move, effective from September 2015, was welcomed by all including the Howard League for Penal Reform and the literary establishment.
And then followed Liz Truss. She was widely castigated for failing to support more robustly the judiciary and the principle of judicial independence, after three judges of the Divisional Court came under attack from politicians and from the Daily Mail for ruling against the government in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, who had previously suggested that, like her immediate predecessors Chris Grayling and Michael Gove, Truss lacked the essential legal expertise that the constitution requires, called for her to be sacked as Justice Secretary as her perceived inadequate response "signals to the judges that they have lost their constitutional protector". She didn`t last long and nobody lamented her leaving office.
She was followed by David Liddington who lasted six months in office and was a total waste of space.
And along came David Gauke who achieved nothing in his short tenure.
A week after being sworn Rober Buckland in July 2019 in an interview for The Times newspaper expressed the opinion that suspects accused of serious crimes should be granted anonymity if the accusations threatened their reputation stating "let's say you are a reputable local business person who is accused of fraud. Your good name is going to be really undermined by this mere accusation. That might be a meritorious case for anonymity." In response to the interview Ian Murray, director of the Society of Editors stated said it was "absurd to suggest that in a liberal democracy we are going to create a system of justice that enables the rich, the powerful and celebrities to be protected when they are under investigation for serious crimes but the ordinary man or woman would be offered no such protections." Buckland's opinion was rejected by a Government spokesman who confirmed "this is not government policy", and the Ministry of Justice which confirmed "this isn't departmental policy" and stated that Buckland would not be giving further interviews on the subject which would now be handled by Downing Street. In September 2020 Buckland stated on The Andrew Marr Show that he would resign only if the UK Internal Market Bill broke the law "in a way I find unacceptable". An example of double speak from one of the experts. Indeed he might have been following Humpty Dumpty with the latter`s assertion that words mean what I want them to mean.
Finally until today we have Dominic Raab who in my humble opinion was all mouth and no trousers. It has been obvious to all that he has been more concerned with his previous position as deputy prime minister following his failure as foreign secretary than accomplishing anything worthwhile other than unnecessary press releases in his time at Petty France.
And so the story ends to begin again with more aspirants to an office which has been devalued by virtually all who have held sway since 2010 over a pillar of our democracy.
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