With every respect to Kate Graves- who of course has a point- it REMAINS very important for those in authority to keep re-asserting these unarguable and undilutable principles. Just let us remember the chilling dismissal incorporated in the words of for example Liz Truss as Justice Secretary and the “Enemies of the People” headline, etcetera.
Many congratulations to Mr Nick Hanning. I often say that my own Legal Executive with little doubt was a better lawyer than me.
One creditable memory of Lord Phillips is of his masquerading as an offender sentenced to unpaid work so as to experience for himself the nature and value of THAT species of sentence. All praise to him for that- ideally every holder of senior political office should be required to consumer test prisons, tagging, house arrest and- for example- weekend custody.
As to the Guildford Four, one of my all time heroes and I am proud to say a good and close friend is Alastair Logan, who as a solicitor in general practice -after first having declined- then took on the defence of those accused, at a time when to have done so had invited the deepest opprobrium, then took on the case, which changed him into a dedicated seeker of truth and doughty fighter for human rights.
As to the Birmingham bombings Yvonne and I had been just up the road at a CBSO Concert in the Town Hall at the time of the detonations. The following morning on my way into my office in Brum City Centre I passed the one demolished pub. The atmosphere at the time was febrile and vengeful towards anyone of an Irish extraction. At Longbridge car factory management turned back any such at the entry gate since makeshift gallows had been erected for them. I myself represented the piper at McDade’s Coventry funeral since an experienced colleague had implored me to take it off him because of his “strong feelings”. Minor charge though it had been, I still checked the underneath of my car before driving away from the Court after his hearing. Such was the spirit of the time.
When you and I started, Joshua - around 1968 (+/-) - we had managing clerks. They knew knew everything about how courts worked, if not always much about the underlying law. Around then they became legal executives. I worked with a legal executive in Bristol who had started as an 'office boy' in 1933 aged 14. When he came back to Bristol after the war to return to EJ Watson, Cox & Counsell, he thought, was the worst thing he had ever done. Maybe. But I am sure that what George Jones did not know about divorce law and procedure (and how Bristol County Court and District Registry worked) was not worth knowing.
Now CILEX and judges. George would have made an excellent - if a little impatient - judge. I have a short series of recollections of his about law and lawyers in Bristol, penned some years after his retirement. He entitled it 'Not entirely without prejudice'.
Yes indeed. I don't recall any managing clerks at the solicitors' firm where I worked for most of 1968. But the firm where I trained from 1972 to 1974 relied hugely on their expertise. They wouldn't have had the authority to sit as judges in those class-based days, though. Outside places like Sandhurst, NCOs didn't give orders to officers.
"A modern judiciary should reflect the society it serves"
I see statements of this nature time and time again and it's just lazy. We should fully expect that the judiciary will take time to catch up with the general demographics of the country because the judiciary is not drawing from the general population, it's drawing from the population of people who got top law degrees and pupillages 20+ years ago and then remained in the profession.
With every respect to Kate Graves- who of course has a point- it REMAINS very important for those in authority to keep re-asserting these unarguable and undilutable principles. Just let us remember the chilling dismissal incorporated in the words of for example Liz Truss as Justice Secretary and the “Enemies of the People” headline, etcetera.
Many congratulations to Mr Nick Hanning. I often say that my own Legal Executive with little doubt was a better lawyer than me.
One creditable memory of Lord Phillips is of his masquerading as an offender sentenced to unpaid work so as to experience for himself the nature and value of THAT species of sentence. All praise to him for that- ideally every holder of senior political office should be required to consumer test prisons, tagging, house arrest and- for example- weekend custody.
As to the Guildford Four, one of my all time heroes and I am proud to say a good and close friend is Alastair Logan, who as a solicitor in general practice -after first having declined- then took on the defence of those accused, at a time when to have done so had invited the deepest opprobrium, then took on the case, which changed him into a dedicated seeker of truth and doughty fighter for human rights.
As to the Birmingham bombings Yvonne and I had been just up the road at a CBSO Concert in the Town Hall at the time of the detonations. The following morning on my way into my office in Brum City Centre I passed the one demolished pub. The atmosphere at the time was febrile and vengeful towards anyone of an Irish extraction. At Longbridge car factory management turned back any such at the entry gate since makeshift gallows had been erected for them. I myself represented the piper at McDade’s Coventry funeral since an experienced colleague had implored me to take it off him because of his “strong feelings”. Minor charge though it had been, I still checked the underneath of my car before driving away from the Court after his hearing. Such was the spirit of the time.
When you and I started, Joshua - around 1968 (+/-) - we had managing clerks. They knew knew everything about how courts worked, if not always much about the underlying law. Around then they became legal executives. I worked with a legal executive in Bristol who had started as an 'office boy' in 1933 aged 14. When he came back to Bristol after the war to return to EJ Watson, Cox & Counsell, he thought, was the worst thing he had ever done. Maybe. But I am sure that what George Jones did not know about divorce law and procedure (and how Bristol County Court and District Registry worked) was not worth knowing.
Now CILEX and judges. George would have made an excellent - if a little impatient - judge. I have a short series of recollections of his about law and lawyers in Bristol, penned some years after his retirement. He entitled it 'Not entirely without prejudice'.
Yes indeed. I don't recall any managing clerks at the solicitors' firm where I worked for most of 1968. But the firm where I trained from 1972 to 1974 relied hugely on their expertise. They wouldn't have had the authority to sit as judges in those class-based days, though. Outside places like Sandhurst, NCOs didn't give orders to officers.
Perhaps you’ve earned a break. Happy New Year
Thank you!
"A modern judiciary should reflect the society it serves"
I see statements of this nature time and time again and it's just lazy. We should fully expect that the judiciary will take time to catch up with the general demographics of the country because the judiciary is not drawing from the general population, it's drawing from the population of people who got top law degrees and pupillages 20+ years ago and then remained in the profession.