DAME ALISON SAUNDERS: THE PROCESS STINKS

Admission:- I am not a major fan of the honours system but...........at the age of 83 my late mother was awarded MBE for services to the community.  She ran her local Citizens` Advice Bureau for over twenty years.  She was immensely proud of these three letters and was known to occasionally let others be aware of her pride.  She thoroughly deserved that royal recognition and others who have been similarly awarded are likewise held in high regard in their communities and rightly so.  However, when the prime ministers responsible for the recommendations of the highest public awards do so in act akin to the showering of confetti at a bridal party the smugness and aloofness of their position should be intolerable. It isn`t. Twice yearly undeserving gong seekers are bestowed with their lifelong dream irrespective of their worthiness. From failed politicians and former MPs being given a meal ticket until death in the House of Lords to those who have been miserable failures in their often public positions the tale seems endless. In the recent so called honours list no recipient has least deserved this form of recognition than Alison Saunders; recently retired head of the CPS. I first posted on her 13th April 2015;  10th October 2016 was her next appearance followed by 10th October 2017 . Under her so called leadership rape prosecutions fell apart owing directly to police and CPS failures to disclose evidence to the defence that might have assisted in defence counsel arguing their clients` innocence. She had succumbed to the "rape lobby" in their spurious arguments that far too many men were "getting away with it" and was determined to increase the conviction rate by whatever means were within her power. Between 2014 and 2016 disclosure errors in such trials increased by 70%. She failed three times to convict defendants accused of female genital mutilation. Of sinister import under Operation Elveden 34 journalists were arrested and 29 charged with making payments to public officials.  Many were on bail for years in a legal limbo while CPS tried to build a valid case.  None was convicted. There was a similar scandal under Operation Yewtree concerning historical sexual abuse claims later dismissed. Her period in office was nothing short of a shambles.  In any non civil service employment she would have been fired for incompetence but in our society where feather bedded  politicians and senior civil servants looking at their own futures behave as their Victorian forefathers did such direct actions are few and very far between. The current suggestions by Dominic Cummings, number one advisor to the prime minister, seeking weirdos out of the box to advise Tory policy might not be to everyone`s taste but they are a straightforward reaction to the very situation that allowed Saunders to keep her job.  But the fact that she has been made Dame Alison in the new years honours list is a scandal too far. Tax payers have funded her pension pot of £1.8 million while she has walked into a six figure figure salary at Linklaters. The whole process stinks.  

TOADY:- BE OBSEQUIOUS TOWARDS

Many more illustrious observers than I have pointed out in recent days that the government is seriously considering restricting the powers of the judiciary as a result of the shenanigans over parliament`s control of its proceedings during the Brexit debacle of last year. Those constitutional high flying legal eagles on and appearing in front of the Supreme Court certainly are well able to offer their own arguments when push comes to shove but where the legal system truly impacts upon the general population is at the magistrates courts and it is within the confines of this institution that the ravaging of our supposedly world renown justice system is there for all the world to see if it were interested and that`s the point; within and without "justice" the policy is make do and mend. When I was appointed in the 1990s magistrates controlled within certain boundaries the process. And that is when government began to extend its power. Beginning with the 1997 Labour administration and accelerating fiercely with the Coalition of 2010 and the following years of Tory rule. Magistrates were increasingly removed from positions of influence and began to resemble those in Pong Yang or Beijing listening with feigned rapture to the words of their great leader.  But until a couple of years ago there was still a couple of avenues where the untrammelled opinions of my former colleagues could be expressed by elected representatives on the Magistrates Association  and the National Bench Chairmans` Forum.  But that was still too much independence for the liking of an ever increasing authoritarian tendency at Petty France.  And thus was born the idea of "National and Regional Leadership Magistrates". These would be  toads allowed their own self aggrandisement to overcome any reticence that they would be lap dogs of the MOJ. They represent nobody but themselves in their path to public recognition at some future time with some magical letters after their name.  Their whole ethos is an insult to their 15,000 colleagues who serve their communities at the whim of their masters at HMCTS often being treated as unpaid employees instead of worthy individuals giving up their time and offering their varied expertise and histories in a worthy cause. For more information a post from 2018 might be of interest. 

For the record those appointed are listed below. 

    

PEACE ON EARTH

I suppose "peace on Earth and goodwill towards men" sums up precisely what the world needs most. Unfortunately recent events indicate that that aspiration might never be attained.  However until such time that that enduring phrase is erased from our consciousness and our consciences we can but be hopeful that we might reach an era when its repetition offers some solace to all of us.

I thank all my readers for the precious minutes they have spent to read my simple offerings in 2019 and hope to be back here with some more of the same in January.  

   

NO LEGAL AID MEANS NO ROSY FUTURE

Of all the announcements in the Queen`s Speech one that will have bypassed those without a vested interest in the subject is that almost 500 new prosecutors will be recruited in the next six months after concerns that criminal cases were dropped or delayed owing to a shortage of resources. Since 2010 when the MOJ budget was slashed by 23% and loudly proclaimed by he who has just retired as "father of the House; Kenneth Clarke", the justice system of which politicians of all hues shout so proudly has been allowed to fall into what can only be described as disrepair.  Of course at the top of the justice tree where the highest civil courts and their professional protagonists operate billions of pounds keep rolling in from those foolish individuals and companies with more money than they know what to do with. The Supreme Court as has been seen recently offers the most demanding questions of law to its members and provides the highest quality of decisions. But at t`other end in what remains of our magistrates courts and to a certain degree in the Crown Courts inefficiencies and sheer incompetencies  seem every day to outdo each other in their capacity to undermine swift, safe and secure justice for all. All the components in the running of a court are there in a state of disarray and/or wilful neglect. The numbers of magistrates was allowed to drop to alarming levels supposedly in line with a falling workload and the closing of half the courts in England and Wales. Urgent recruitment over the last few months and currently is likely to lead to a drop in quality standards of those hurriedly thrown into the midst of a recruitment policy which over emphasises the diversity mix as much as any other individual requirements. During the last few years of my career on the bench prosecutors without a law degree were being employed in matters where properly qualified CPS personnel were unavailable. Returning to my opening sentence there is no knowing of what academic or professional level these 500 hurriedly soon to be employed newcomers will have to have achieved but in all likelihood many will not be qualified lawyers.  During my tenure such people were referred to as "assistant prosecutors". It remains to be seen what 2020 holds but I`m afraid that without the availability of legal aid as it was twenty years ago that outlook is far from rosy.  

GOVERNMENT AND LAW

It would be churlish to ignore the election result on the basis of this writer being primarily concerned with matters which affect magistrates and those who appear before them  That a blatantly antisemitic communist whose political ethos has been driven by a hatred for western civilisation and sympathy and support for murderous terrorists became leader of the Labour Party reflects very badly on us all.  It remains to be seen whether his cult following will be culled by the incoming leadership. An English nationalist is now holding more power over us than any prime minister since 1945. He has returned to number 10  with an ouvert admiration for Donald Trump and irrespective of any  major policy announcements has clearly hinted that he regards the courts as an obstacle to his will having been humiliated by the Supreme Court and the Court of Session. I comment as a firm Leaver until last spring when it became clear that Theresa May was incapable of securing a withdrawal agreement that would not ruin much of British business and the jobs involved.  As a Remainer Now supporter on Twitter I am therefore not unhappy now that the Conservatives are securely in power and are likely to deliver on a settlement which will not be detrimental to our future growth but..................and that "but" is the  threat to the courts` powers to step in when the executive appears to have overstepped its authority.  There will be no European Union authority as a long off.  We will be on our own. Boris Johnson should be reminded that any changes to our legal system concerning the constitution would be available to a future government less inclined to operate under the rule of law.   

TV LICENSING SHOULD BE DECRIMINALISED

It seems, predictable as ever, Boris Johnson has come up with what he thinks might be a last minute inducement to secure more of the "grey" vote which tends to be more conservative than socialist. There is the possibility that over 75s will lose their "free" TV license next summer and he has hinted that he might tell the BBC to fund the freebie if it wants it to continue. With a maximum fine [rarely applied] for TV license evasion of £1000 appearing not to deter evasion by usually the poorest of pensioners he has mused on its abandonment. Last year there were 129,446 prosecutions for TV license evasion all of course in magistrates courts. It is exceedingly difficult to translate that number into meaningful statistics owing to the frequency of court closures undertaken since 2010 when the coalition government came to power.  It seems that 162 of the 323 magistrates courts in England and Wales have shut – a loss of 50.2% of the estate. That translates as the remaining 161 having each 804 defendants annually to deal with or 15 every week in each magistrates court.  It has been suggested that these cases represent about 10% of all cases at the magistrates court. There are about 26 million license payers ie about 0.50% of TV viewers` households have been found guilty of evasion. Along with the vast majority of my former colleagues I was none too happy with the situation. Invariably the poorest and/or recently arrived immigrants seemed to form the bulk of offenders although it was not unusual to discover that a subscription TV service was being paid for when the license was not. Those appearing before us were distressed to discover that that they had committed a criminal offence.  License inquiry agents tended to hold the first person to open the front door of a suspected premises to be the person responsible for the offence. Most members of the public do not know that they were under no obligation to open the door nor allow entrance to their property. I recall a case where that unlucky door opening first person who appeared before me and my colleagues was a visiting American Harvard law graduate who now as a result has a criminal record in the UK.  As a result when my son went to university I advised him not to overlook requiring a license for his flat`s TV and never to open the door to an inquiry agent. 

There is no doubt that it is about time that this offence was decriminalised and offenders were brought before county court. I would go further and agree with the aforementioned Johnson that in keeping with the development of digital entertainment platforms a license funded BBC is an anachronism.  That, however, is a situation outwith the sphere of legal eagles and is a purely political matter for those oh so wise individuals who are so superior in their judgement than we poor mortals; heaven be praised and God save the Queen. 

IT`S NOT WHAT YOU SAY: IT`S WHAT YOU MEAN. SOME PERSONAL HUMOUR

How often in general discussion do we ask for a remark to be repeated because although we heard what was being said we hadn`t actually been listening. A rarely mentioned benefit of chairing a court is that one trains oneself to listen to everything that is said. As I was listening to a weather forecast on TV last week the forecaster began by saying,"Most of us will have a wet and windy night". Speaking to my wife for both our sakes I remarked,"Not me I hope." 

EARLY RELEASE

The tragic circumstances last week involving a convicted terrorist who was freed early according to the law at the time in question has led to many claims and counter claims about which party was ultimately responsible.  That debate conducted whilst the crime scene was still cordoned off and the relatives of those murdered still in shock was a disgusting spectacle which reinforced my and many others` opinions that we are being asked to vote for the most inadequate pair of party leaders in my adult lifetime.  However the question of early release is one considered by every magistrates bench in every magistrates court every day of the week. On sentencing a miscreant to immediate custody the chairman of the bench after stating the exact term must tell the person in the dock that it is likely that s/he will be released on license after having served half the sentence aforestated.  During my time when I was responsible for such pronouncements I made them through gritted teeth.  It seemed to me then and it seems to me now that it made nonsense of the Sentencing Guidelines which every court must follow. The concept of sentence reduction as a "given" renders the process meaningless. Certainly in the right circumstances early release in itself is a fine ideal.  It is, however, offered willy nilly. We hear so often much criticism of the "stick" approach to sentencing from well financed lobbyists but rarely that the "carrot" approach has been misused in order to keep the prison population from exploding.  Early release should be subject to the satisfactory behaviour of prison inmates and be considered by an expanded and more citizen weighted parole board whose members would be of a similar calibre to those appointed to the bench able to function without the underlying government`s opinion on whether or not it is in line with their political aspirations. I am realistically despondent, however,  insofar as that situation is unlikely ever to materialise.  

COMMENT CAN BE A TECHIE PROBLEM

It has come to my notice that accessing the comment feature via "no comments", itself a bit of a misnomer, can be impossible with some browsers; certainly I know that readers using Safari have had this problem. My advice is to use Chrome for this purpose if others fail.

SENTENCING NEEDS UPDATING

It goes almost without saying but I`ll say it anyway; sentencing structures in this country are (to be polite) in need of drastic changes to meet with the drastic changes in society and its mores and the knowledge we now have on the sciences concerned with human behaviour.  To add to the mix no government has been or will be willing to pay the £billions necessary to face the reality of what must be spent to halt the seemingly intractable problem of criminality and the measures required to protect society from such whether the criminality is on line fraud sometimes and sometimes not covered by insurance but where there is no physical harm or violence or gangs of rampaging youths with knives or guns in their hands as is now happening all over the country.  Into the mix there is one fact which needs to be faced; about 70% of all acquisitive crime including harm to victims or property is committed by those addicted to alcohol and/or prohibited drugs.  The definition of criminal offensiveness is now almost beyond parody. Religious tolerance to changes in human behaviour once common except in Northern Ireland is now at straining point especially in some parts of a Muslim population which will soon exceed three million.  The scourge of that oldest of all viruses which had been thought to have peaked in 1944 was only slumbering as recent events in Hungary, Sweden and within the Labour Party have shown. How to react to the above is not the sort of comment common to Lord Chancellors.  All they seem able to do is mouth platitudes about knife crime and good intentions. The only hardened opinions in this country seem to be to abolish all short (ie up to six months) custodial sentences or increase jail time for serious offending. My own view posted here a few times is that institutions should be created for the compulsory incarceration of all offending addicts until they are clean and ready for rehabilitation.  Use the search box on this page "workhouse" for lengthier argument.  Meanwhile an interesting but limited item on sentencing from New Zealand caught my attention.  Access it here.