Others still are more likely the cumulative effect of various decisions, or non-decisions, over time. It is unimportant to spend time apologising for wrongful imprisonment (for example). It is important to be seen to be tough on violent crime. Others are plainly the result of conscious, or at least semi-conscious, choices that have been made about what is important or unimportant. Having lay magistrates adjudicate on a significant portion of criminal activity seems bonkers (at best). Some of these seem to be baked into the chaotic design. The first is to shine as bright a light as possible on its shortcomings. The anonymous author takes the reader through the complex workings of our justice system in order, I think, to achieve two things. Perhaps well-written polemics on state failures should be added to a list of things one gets after a decade of austerity politics. It forms part of the long line of recent insider accounts, second only to Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt in terms of its popular success. For those who haven’t had the “pleasure”, The Secret Barrister, published in 2018, is an insider’s account of the labyrinthine failings of the British justice system. It is enough to make any sentient human’s blood boil. My fury is instead attributable to reading The Secret Barrister.
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