Farmers opposed to plan to extend inheritance tax to some farms drive into central London
Shabana Mahmood hinted in an interview this morning that jury trials could be scrapped for some offenders in England and Wales to reduce court delays.
There have been reports saying the government is considering introducing a new “intermediary” court, comprising a judge sitting with two magistrates, to replace the traditional jury in trials for crime where the maximum sentence is no more than two years in jail.
We do have a crown court backlog that is very high and likely to rise, because the sheer number of cases that are coming into the system is so big, that even if we were sitting at maximum capacity across the whole of the crown court, we still wouldn’t be able to touch the sides of that backlog.
That does say that we need to think about doing things differently, and the announcements that we will be making will set out the government’s proposals in this space.
Good for them. They are facing this utterly iniquitous, frankly cruel family farm tax.
You’ve got farmers – these are not wealthy people. These are people who have a couple of hundred acres, had always expected to hand their farm on to their children and their grandchildren.
Continue reading… The Guardian Read More Farmers opposed to plan to extend inheritance tax to some farms drive into central LondonShabana Mahmood hinted in an interview this morning that jury trials could be scrapped for some offenders in England and Wales to reduce court delays.There have been reports saying the government is considering introducing a new “intermediary” court, comprising a judge sitting with two magistrates, to replace the traditional jury in trials for crime where the maximum sentence is no more than two years in jail.We do have a crown court backlog that is very high and likely to rise, because the sheer number of cases that are coming into the system is so big, that even if we were sitting at maximum capacity across the whole of the crown court, we still wouldn’t be able to touch the sides of that backlog.That does say that we need to think about doing things differently, and the announcements that we will be making will set out the government’s proposals in this space.Good for them. They are facing this utterly iniquitous, frankly cruel family farm tax.You’ve got farmers – these are not wealthy people. These are people who have a couple of hundred acres, had always expected to hand their farm on to their children and their grandchildren. Continue reading…
