Book
Festival Reports
Mortimer
Reporter Iain Gilmour
Britain’s Labour government is destroying the country’s legal
system, the
author and barrister John Mortimer told a capacity audience at the Edinburgh
International Book Festival.
“What we’ve got is a Conservative government, which leaves
the
conservatives nothing to talk about. I think the Labour Party has sort
of
lost its soul”
Mortimer, world-famed as writer of the “Rumpole of the Bailey”
TV
series, is a life-long Labour supporter..
He said the many controversial cases he had defended as a barrister
were
all battles for freespeech and liberty. Asked why he took them,he added:
“They provide a marvellous opportunity for making a judge look
ridiculous.”
“I have great respect for the legal system,” the 78-year-old
added. “But
for the people whorun it – it varies.”
“I have the greatest reverence for the English Legal system. My
quarrel
with this present government is that it is picking it to pieces.
“They’re selling off Magna Carta in job lots and I don’t
like it.”
Mortimer attacked moves to change the burden of proof and limit the
right to trial by jury. “Any act which involves money in an attempt
to abolish juries is
pernicious. The first act of any tyrannical government is to abolish
juries.”
© Iain Gilmour August 2001
