Omnishambles Update 47

As the end of the Probation Service as we know it fast approaches, there's a definite sense that Grayling's days at the MoJ are also numbered. The summer Parliamentary break will soon be upon us and it's widely believed a government re-shuffle is on the cards. Everywhere you look there's chaos in this guy's Bailiwick and although it would be poetic justice to make him stay and stew in his own juice, a new appointment would provide an excuse and legitimisation for some urgent face-saving changes.

News continues to circulate that bidders are dropping out fast for probation work, and with some areas rumoured to have none at all, there's a desperate plan to increase the contract package areas in order to make things look more attractive for the big boys. There's massive imbalances in staffing within CRC's and NPS and evidence everywhere of disgruntled employees consciously doing nothing to smooth the transition. Another two offices walked out recently in protest as potential bidders walked in.

The prison population continues to rise and wings that were closed in order to save money are having to be re-opened all over the place. There's a general feeling that tension is rising within the system with 'disturbances'  being reported more frequently, and no doubt exacerbated by the effects of staffing cuts from 'bench-marking'. 

We all know that warm weather could easily provide the spark that ignites trouble amongst disgruntled inmates furious at the cumulative effect of recent changes to the incentive and earned privileges scheme. Interestingly there is also evidence that the quality of prison food is deteriorating, so clearly the lessons from major prison disturbances in the past, such as Strangeways nearly 25 years ago, have been forgotten. 

Then there's those truculent barristers that Grayling thought he'd bought off flexing their considerable muscle again. In a lesson that admirably demonstrates the power of solidarity, all five withdrew their services from defendants in a major fraud trial, thus triggering it's collapse and a 23 page Judgement that utterly skewers Graylings case for legal aid cuts. His feeble response that 'Britain has the most expensive Legal Aid provision in the world' sounds as tired and hackneyed as his 'leaving prison with only £46 in their pocket' mantra.

This article by barrister Adam Wagner in the New Statesman summed things up nicely:-

Did you hear the “snap”?

If you were in Southwark Crown Court at 11:30 yesterday morning, you would definitely have heard it.

That was when His Honour Judge Leonard QC delivered a ruling (pdf) which in 23 pages put Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s major legal aid reforms in jeopardy.

The judge effectively terminated the prosecution of five men for allegedly stealing over £5m from UK investors. The reason? The government had failed in its duty to ensure the defendants were represented.

The barristers who were supposed to represent the men pulled out of the case after the Ministry of Justice cut legal aid fees for complex cases by 30 per cent. They were told if they refused to work under the new rates their existing contracts would be terminated.

Back to that “snap”. The UK has an unwieldy but remarkably flexible unwritten constitution. Think of that scene where Gulliver wakes up to find he is bound by hundreds of tiny little ropes. In the UK, those in power are also bound by tiny ropes, woven over centuries to prevent them oppressing the people.

It was those ropes which stopped fascism and communism succeeding here. As George Orwell said in 1941, the “totalitarian idea that there is no such thing as law, there is only power, has never taken root”.   

But one of those ropes just snapped.

It began to fray almost a decade ago. That was when the Constitutional Reform Act fundamentally changed the ancient role of Lord Chancellor. For hundreds of years the Lord Chancellor had been a judge or senior lawyer. A key part of his job was speaking up in Parliament for the rule of law.

No more. Now the Lord Chancellor is a political appointee and is responsible for managing the criminal justice system. He need not know anything about law.

It took a while for the change to be felt. Jack Straw and Ken Clarke, the first two of the new breed, were former lawyers who understood the system they were entrusted to protect.

But that changed with Chris Grayling, the first non-lawyer to hold the post in over three centuries. The result has been constitutional carnage, wrought on three fronts.

First, there have been swingeing cuts to legal aid. Legal aid is often described the NHS for justice. Providing representation for poor people in proceedings which could affect their lives as much as a serious illness has been a proud tradition. But facing huge cuts to the budget, lawyers have been unable to generate the kind of sympathy that has kept cuts away from doctors and nurses.

Second, human rights laws have been under attack. Grayling is soon to unveil plans to curtail the role of the European Convention on Human Rights, a system created over 60 years ago largely by Conservative lawyers. Lawyers who speak up against the proposals are branded self-interested fat cats, even though they are amongst the lowest earners in the profession.

Third, there has been an assault on Judicial Review, which lets ordinary people can take public authorities to court to ensure they act within the law. The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said last week that evidential basis for the Government’s proposals is “weak”.

The JCHR also said the government’s approach “expose[d] the conflict inherent in the combined roles of the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice”. It criticised Grayling’s “energetic” and “politically partisan” pursuit of reforms which “place direct limits on the ability of the courts to hold the executive to account”.

The most telling evidence to that committee was Grayling’s own. In an attempt to show how seriously he takes protecting the rule of law, he said he would never criticise judges except “if I am directly involved in a case, I disagree with the judge and plan to appeal it”. How can the minister fighting hundreds of prison-related judicial review claims also be responsible for reforming the system?

So the rope frayed. Then, yesterday, it snapped. The government argued that it should be allowed an adjournment, to some time in 2015, so that representation could be found. No, said the judge. Because to allow the State a long delay to put right its “failure to provide the necessary resources to permit a fair trial” would, he ruled, be “a violation of the process of this court”.  

The judgement may be appealed. But even so, a number of other serious fraud trials are at risk. Crimes will go unpunished and victims will be denied justice.

Some good may come of this. The public may begin to realise that the Lord Chancellor’s reform programme, motivated by ideology not analysis, is putting the rule of law at risk.

We cannot afford for another of those ropes to snap.

I'll end this by reference to another group of people currently engaged in a fight to protect vital public services. It's the text of a speech of solidarity by Napo activist Gordon Jackson in support of the Fire Brigades Union. It's rather good and I hope he doesn't mind me nicking it from Facebook:-

“I received an email from Jamie, your local organiser, on Monday informing me about today. I thought, “ Another strike, this is hard work.” You see the Probation service in its present form has 29 days left. We have fought yet we find that what we fought against is upon us. We have been split apart, chaos reigns and the workforce is living in the shock of something that is largely psychological. No walls have fallen down but something greater has fallen, the spirits of the staff. So in my own down heartened way I found it hard to lift myself and say enthusiastically, “ I will be there”.

Yet, as the days have passed your cause has stayed with me. Encouragement costs little and so no matter how bad it is we need to encourage, encourage one and another. I guess encouragement is about someone giving you that belief that someone is behind you, that someone believes in you. And who cannot believe in people like yourselves?

The other night listening to LBC every caller and the presenter was on your side! Yesterday I received a book from a friend in the US and in it I was reminded of the words of JFK,

“Each time a man stand up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

I like that bit ‘strikes out against an injustice’ actually what you are doing. So be encouraged to stand for what you believe, be encouraged that you stand for that universal principle of Justice, the same Justice that oppressed people the world over seek and fight to achieve. Yes, there are greater levels of injustice across the world but we are called wherever injustice exists, no matter how small, to stand against it. Be encouraged FBU members in your stand for Justice."