The Bar Council had condemned the way that sections of the press have criticised the High Court judges who ruled with Gina Millar on Brexit. There are calls from the left and from certain members of the legal community for curbs on the press and the protection of judges. This is terrifying.
This happens in the same week that the Courts have stopped the Daily Mail from naming a high profile businessman whose firm has swindled hundreds of ordinary citizens. Once again the judges have sides with the rich and powerful against the little guy. As a consumer I regard my right not to be swindled as more important than the right of a millionaire to privacy. But the Judges stick with the elite and gag the press.
So judges can continue to gag the press and insist - rightly - that they cannot be over-ruled by politicians and must be independent of them.
But if politicians cannot hold the judiciary to account who will? Surely that is exactly what the 4th Estate is there to do? Yet judges now want that freedom to be curbed as well. This is not a happy path on which we wander.
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