I`m old enough to remember occasionally reading in newspapers of the abject state of the judicial system in India where thousands of untried defendants were languishing in ancient prisons built during the Raj unlikely to have their day in court not just for many months but for many years. The daily average number of adults in prison custody in England and Wales in 1974 was 26,234. This figure represents 78 adults per 100,000 in the population. In April 2024, the prisoner population of England and Wales stood at 87,481 while the operating capacity of prisons was 88.889. In 2022 there were 159 per 100,000. These numbers are just a snapshot at the hard end of our justice system. But what of the other end?
Governments and legal sources with their in built biases have for generations told the British public that their legal and justice system is a system of which they cannot be too proud: that it has been exported to many countries mainly from the days of the Empire for which these now independent nations are forever grateful. We are also told not just that the system is a glowing testament to the British concept of "fair play and fairness" but that the practitioners within that system can hold their heads up high with pride in their probity and efficiency. Tell that to the people of Hong Kong (in a whisper behind closed doors) and they would laugh and cry simultaneously if they were able as confusing thoughts and emotions compete with each other in a manner with which the brain cannot cope. They would cry at the naivety of the British government when it handed the colony back to China according to the terms of the agreement signed in 1898 when Britain obtained a 99-year lease for the New Territories. They would laugh at the thought that amongst some others, bigwigs of the British judiciary since 1997 have been presiding over Chinese imposed legislation in Chinese courts over Hong Kong citizens accused of transgressing that Chinese legislation; legislation which is designed to stifle any aspect of what our society terms free speech. Information of these former judges from the highest ranks of British judiciary was first posted here 16th March 2021. There was an update on 8th March 2022.
In the last few days without any major announcement former Canadian Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and UK judges Lord Jonathan Sumption and Lord Lawrence Collins have resigned from Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal. What has taken them so long to leave the posts which any reasonably minded person could see was a fig leaf to cover the totalitarian nature of the Chinese so called government which was following the processes of similar dictatorships of the modern era?
At all levels owing to financial starvation since 2010 and an unashamed arrogance of many practitioners the legal system is floundering where it matters; at the lower end of the spectrum whilst a relatively few exorbitantly overpaid solicitors and barristers snaffle millions from representing Russian oligarchs trying to keep their ill gotten billions and ridding themselves of their trophy wives. And there are many others with pockets filled with gold from the Arabic speaking world to keep busy other experts in Chancery Lane in exchange for $$$$$ Roubles or Rials.
And then we have The Criminal Cases Review Commission; supposedly the last stop in the journey of ensuring justice has been done. This was a subject posted here 5th September 2023. Since then the Post Office scandal has had some light shone upon those lawyers within the company who failed in their obligations to their profession and to judges who were reticent in exercising their powers of intervention when such intervention would likely have saved the heartache to which many postmasters were brutally subjected.
The case of Andrew Malkinson is perhaps the most telling of miscarriages of justice this century. Every professional involved must share some blame for his being in the Kafkaesque situation of being kept in prison despite evidence available to throw doubt on his conviction because he refused to admit his "guilt". Perhaps those involved in this disgraceful process hadn`t read "The Trial".
The iniquities of the Single Justice Procedure have been exposed here many times and don`t need to be repeated. The failure of judges to sentence appropriately for knife crime, the "shoplifters go free" policy set down by MOJ, the failure of the Metropolitan Police in particular to clamp down hard on racist abuse during supposedly peaceful but intimidating marches and the aforementioned sentencing to suit prison accommodation available are just some of the factors which are now the accepted norm in our society.
It would take the proverbial optimist high on whatever favourite substance addled his/her brain to think any future government would be able to turn around this sorry state of affairs. Meanwhile an ever increasing minority would like to impose sharia law on this country and are beginning to exercise their electoral muscle to this effect.
Salam alaikum.
ADDENDUM 14.00 11th June 2024
Latest update on the Post Office Inquiry courtesy of the Law Society Gazette
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