David Lammy, Keir Starmer;s Justice Secretry and Deputy Prime Minister is developing to scrap jury trials for most crimes despite previously arguing that they are fundamental to democracy.
In documents leaked to the media, the Justice Secretary has proposed juries will only decide upon cases of murder, rape, manslaughter and other serious offences carrying sentences of more than five years. Apparently Prime Minister Starmer, himself a former hunan rights lawyer, supports this latest lunge towards authoritarianism proposed by a member of his government.
This is just the latest in a stream of totalitarian measures proposed by the labour government. Their flagship policy of introducing mandatory Digital ID to access public services has already been derailed by public opposition.
The plans for summary justice come as British courts battle a record backlog of nearly 80,000 cases, with many victims of crime waiting years for justice. The documents warn that failure to ease the gridlock could lead to a “wider collapse” of the criminal justice system.
But will the abolition of the ancient right to trial by jury of itself not amount to a collapse of the justice system?
Here’s a list of the best known world leaders of the 20th and 21st century who banned jury trials in their push for power
Vladimir Lenin, Russia
Benito Mussolini, Italy
Adolf Hitler, Germany
Generalissimo Francisco Franco, Spain
Mao Tse Tung, Cuba
Fidel Castro, Cuba
Pol Pot, Cambodia
Idi Amin, Uganda
Saddam Hussein, Iraq
Muammar Gaddafi, Libya
Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran
Hector Maduro, Venezuela
Bashar Al Assad, Syria
Is anyone else noticing a pattern here?
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