When jury trial cuts were foretold on TV | Letters

Letter: Charles Harris recalls a dystopian political drama series and spots a worrying parallel with today’s society

The restriction of justice by a leftwing government was intriguingly predicted as far back as 1977 by Wilfred Greatorex in his BBC Two political drama series 1990 (Founder of Starmer’s legal chambers condemns Labour plans to cut jury trials, 13 April).

Starring Edward Woodward as a journalist for Britain’s last remaining independent newspaper, the story was set in a UK where justice was fixed in favour of the state, democracy had been deliberately withered and the borders tightened.

Making the government that did this a socialist one seemed counterintuitive at the time, but now seems sadly prescient. Of course, some things in the drama have yet to come to pass. The government was a dictatorship and the House of Lords had been abolished and turned into an exclusive dinner club.

I don’t believe that Keir Starmer wants to be a dictator. Yet, as so many senior lawyers have now said, cutting jury trials will have minimal effect on clearing the backlog. This is purely a fit of pique at some juries refusing to convict climate protesters. But that fit of pique will have far-reaching effects and I sincerely hope Labour MPs and ministers will see sense and stop at least this part of Greatorex’s predictions coming to pass.
Charles Harris
London

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