Ditching juries is not the answer to our courts crisis

WHEN it was “leaked” last week that David Lammy planned to abolish jury trials “for all but the most serious offences” in an attempt to reduce the backlog of around 80,000 crown court cases, outrage amongst criminal lawyers was tempered by the fact no one actually believed it.

- Tony Kent

David Lammy tells Parliament how he plans to scrap centuries of legal tradition

We'd read the report commissioned by the Ministry of Justice from retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Brian Leveson to find cost-neutral solutions. And we suspected this was a market trader haggle where one starts ridiculously high so the inevitable compromise reflects the starting point all along.

An unworthy tactic for someone with the title of Lord Chancellor maybe, but one we see all too often in the Only Fools and Horses version of modern British politics. It was no surprise then to read Tuesday’s formal announcement and find that Lammy has diluted the plans — “retreating from the most radical reforms”, as the BBC put it.