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26 July 2007 / Michael Mansfield
Issue: 7283 / Categories: Opinion , Profession
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What happened to respect?

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Time is running out for what was one of the best legal systems in the world, says Michael Mansfield QC

This is my fortieth year of practice at the criminal Bar and I believe that the greatest damage to the reputation, quality and integrity of the English justice system has been inflicted by the Labour government first elected in 1997. I am certain that when the legal welfare system was envisaged in the post-war years of an earlier Labour government, nothing of this kind could have been contemplated. The kernel of the attack has been an utter disregard for the rule of law, due process and a fundamental lack of respect for the independence of the judiciary.

The high point of the assault, and also its clearest articulation, came in a speech delivered by Tony Blair to the Labour party conference in 2005—the same conference in which Walter Wolfgang was brutally ejected for a one-word heckle and a T-shirt. It may be that the general public has not been made aware how serious this

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