Russia is winning: Sanctions against Russia are hitting hard those who applied sanctions against Russia as inflation destabilizes economies

 

Transport strikes were the most visible indication that things are going south in the United Kingdom. Now there is the threat of other sectors of the economy like health and education going on strike and no sector is safe as the legal system is now being affected and people will have to defend themselves in court, including in serious cases that can lead to lenghty jail sentences.

This is not about Labour or Conservative. Whoever is in power the consequences of the economie going the wrong way due to energy prices and sanctions against the Russian Federation. European countries that rushed to implement punitive measures had little understanding of the dramatic consequences for their economies are now seeing the error of their ways and praying for no more energy cuts.

If inflation is more than 9% and the government in some cases is only willing to give a 3% salary rise, how are workers going to be persuaded to accept what is effectively a wage reduction? But those at work are not the only ones who will suffer. Pensions are somehow pegged to inflation rises and the question is how is this going to be dealt with. If you have got a state pension, you are going to be affected. If you have got a private pension, you are going to be affected. If you pension fund consists of investments in shares the obvious thought is that if the economy performs badly then investment returns will be lower.

Some Conservative politicians are talking about reducing taxation and cutting down or simply getting rid of VAT and there are those who say that green taxes that severely affect prices should be abolished. If the whole issue is so much depending on energy costs then the green agenda will be dead in the water. We have got to use every bit of fossil fuels we can get our hands on in order to lower energy prices. This means using coal and allowing fracking. 

Lots of money for war, but thousands of people in the UK are left without legal support in court

Democracy and Justice? What Democracy and Justice?

What is happening in Britain is absolutely shambolic. While politicians and mass media are focused on geopolitical nonsense, people in the UK are suffering and suffering ever more and not just because of rising interest rates and rising living costs, waiting lists in health services and almost impossible access to decent housing.

Ministry of Justice has announced that is cutting funding court support service for thousands of people who have to attend court sessions without legal representation and forced to represent themselves. Since legal aid cuts were introduced in 2013 the number of those who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer has skyroketted. By the end of June 2022, a service that has offices in 20 civil and family courts across England and Wales will be left without funding.

It is one of several charities working with unrepresented people in court whose funding is in doubt after the government ended its litigants in person strategy earlier this year. They have been told there will be grants they can apply for in future but given no idea of how much these will be, or what the timescales are.

Left with a £400,000 shortfall in its budget, Support Through Court is about to launch an urgent appeal for funds, without which it faces the prospect of redundancies and the closure of some of its offices.

Eileen Pereira, the chief executive of the charity, said: “Every day hundreds of people who can’t access legal aid walk into court buildings in need of support and guidance and this is only set to rise as the cost of living increases. Without the funding we’ve received for eight years, we’re facing the real possibility of closing the doors on the support we provide to these people.

“To end up closing any of our services would have a devastating impact, not just on the clients we support but on the whole court system.”

Legal aid was taken away in most civil cases and almost all private family law in 2013. Since then, the proportion of private family law hearings where both parties have a lawyer has almost halved to one in five.

In some family hearings it is not uncommon that just one of the litigants is assisted by a solicitor and this happens in 42% of all cases heard in courts across England and Wales. This creates all kinds of injustices as it generates an uneven playing field when it comes to disputes regarding access to childrena and separation of finances. 

While 81% of all those bringing civil claims – such as companies chasing debts – have lawyers, only 44% of those defending them are represented.

The Law Society of England and Wales President, I Stephanie Boyce, said: “Cuts to legal aid have left more and more people having to represent themselves in court as litigants in person. What they most need is legal advice and representation, but Support Through Court provides practical and emotional support that can help them through stressful court hearings. It would be another blow to people trying to navigate the justice system if state funding were removed for this important service.”

The funding shortfall faced by specialist legal and advice support services is £17.5m for 2022-23, according to data collected by the Community Justice Fund.

Look at the numbers. How much money is being diverted to foreign countries and how much money is being withdrawn from critically important services in the United Kingdom. 

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We want access to early legal support to be available to those who need it most and charities will soon be able to bid for new grant funding so even more people can benefit from their services.”

But the fundamental question is how it is possible that people in England and Wales are forced to attend court hearings without legal support simply because they cannot afford legal support and this goes to the core of the very definition of a justice system in the United Kingdom as a whole. Democracy? What Democracy? 

 

Tony Blair: Ban on prosecution goes back to court

A higher magistrate is going to study the existing ban on private prosecution cases brought against Tony Blair.

What transpires from an article published by The Guardian is that the British Justice System is hidden behind a veil of secrecy. Some things might never change.

This is one major characteristic of a weak Democracy that cannot face its demons head on because its citizens are denied access to information they should know for Democracy to be a real Democracy.

Secrecy leads to speculation that undermines Democracy because there is always the presumption that things are kept secret because they are dirty, illegal, fraudulent, criminal. This is the country that has Laws that prevent members of the public from knowing what their rulers are up to with archives that will never be made public or will be made public not less than a 100 years afterwards.