Nigel Farage’s party seems unaware that England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own legal systems
Despite possessing a number of lawyers in its ranks, Ukip has managed to make a complete hash of the section of its election manifesto about the legal system.
There are four mentions of “British law” in the 76 page document — released today — but there is of course no such a thing as “British law”. Nigel Farage’s party seems unaware that England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own legal systems.
Top lawyer and journalist David Allen Green — who has been summarising the key points of the parties’ manifestos through his Jack of Kent Twitter account — was unimpressed.
So UKIP want to protect "British law" from Brussels and Strasbourg, not realising there is no such thing as "British law" in first place.
— Jack of Kent (@JackofKent) April 15, 2015
UKIP: "Protect the integrity of British law!"
- Er, there is no such thing as "British law".
UKIP: "Protect it any way!"
— Jack of Kent (@JackofKent) April 15, 2015
Amid its preoccupation with “British Law”, Ukip seemed to forget about other areas of justice policy, completely failing to mention what its plans are for legal aid.
Not intending to be facetious, but it appears UKIP does not have any policy on legal aid: http://t.co/RS7ILr60Zw (justice, pp 52-56).
— Jack of Kent (@JackofKent) April 15, 2015
The Lib Dems — who also released their manifesto today — were more diligent, issuing a caveat-couched pledge to review civil legal aid, judicial review and court fees.
But there was no promise to reverse these policies, which the party itself helped wave through. Criminal legal aid, Nick Clegg’s party added, won’t be cut any further without an assessment of the “viability of a competitive and diverse market of legal aid providers”.
Employment silk Sean Jones QC, who has also been active on Twitter commenting on the parties’ manifestos, described the Lib Dem document thus:
#LibDemManifesto #ukemplaw First impression: short on specific proposals long on promises to conduct reviews.
— Sean Jones (@seanjones11kbw) April 15, 2015
So not vastly different from the Tories and Labour, then.
So on the issue of legal aid, there is no substantial difference between Labour, Tories, and Lib Dems.
— Jack of Kent (@JackofKent) April 15, 2015
Previously in Legal Cheek’s election coverage:
Legal profession doesn’t rate Tory manifesto pledge to scrap Human Rights Act [Legal Cheek]
Labour politicians don’t want to talk about their vague legal aid manifesto pledge on Twitter [Legal Cheek]