Justice Secretary Jack Straw is proposing that the Supreme Court, when it starts work in October 2009, should be expanded from the twelve Justices originally proposed: he’s suggesting the appointment of a number of “people’s justices” from outside the normal judicial establishment.
In a leaked e-mail to the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, he’s put forward a number of possible candidates, to be made life peers in the next New Year’s honours list: Lady Chakrabarti, currently head of Liberty; Lord Anderson, former barrister and presenter of Radio 4’s Unreliable Evidence; the authors Lady Hegarty and Lord Barnes; Memery Crystal partner Lord Moore; TV performer and personality Lord Brown; former solicitor Lord Mortimer; Jefferson Crabtree partner Lady Gupta; and the barrister and leading academic Baroness McLoughlin of Meols.
Full details of the leaked e-mail are here.
This is a very sinister turn of events. The one thorn in the government’s side has been the judiciary. If this gets through we will have “government people” in the highest court of the land.
Oh very good I should have hit the link button first!!
actually not a bad plan – just get rid of the 12 leagl professionals and a joke could become the way forward!