Douglas Carswell's Blog

Who appoints our judges?

Violent criminals should always be taken to court rather than given on-the-spot fines, Lord Judge told a Commons committee yesterday. It's easy to talk tough on crime when appearing before Commons select committees. 

Perhaps His Lordship might actually be tougher on crime if that same Commons committee got to decide if he was Lord Chief Justice in the first place?

One of the reasons why our criminal justice system keeps letting down the law abiding is that those who preside over it answer only to each other, rather than the rest of us*.

At present, judges are appointed by a panel of grandees; the Judicial Appointments Commission. They focus big time on trying to ensure judges are representative of the wider population in terms of background, gender and heritage. Pity they do little to ensure our judges are representative of the public in terms of attitudes to crime.

* - not a single one of the 10,000 people who appeared before the courts on charges relating to burglary, for example, was handed the maximum sentence.

UPDATE:  "It'll never happen" scoffs one reader of this blog.  Perhaps this excellent Commons research paper might convince you otherwise .... 

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