Jon Robins reflects on some absences from the Conservative manifesto & LASPO’s shadow
If NLJ readers want to understand where ‘access to justice’ ranks alongside the big policy questions of the day as we approach June 8, a brief flick through the Conservative Party’s election manifesto will leave them in little doubt.
It doesn’t. The words ‘legal aid’ are mentioned once and even then the topic doesn’t warrant an entire sentence. ‘We will strengthen legal services regulation and restrict legal aid for unscrupulous law firms that issue vexatious legal claims against the armed forces,’ it reads.
For the Tories, and (in their view) prospective voters, ‘legal aid’ has become synonymous with abuse. The topic is only relevant in the context of tank chasing personal injury lawyers ‘hounding’ the men and women of the military. It is a policy that will only have added to the joy of the Daily Mail already cock-a-hoop with a manifesto that, in its view, managed to both ‘invoke the spirit of Churchill and Thatcher’.
Compare & contrast
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