Lammy wants to end a thousand years of trial by jury

Is this the end of England as we knew her?

An act in planning to give ultimate power to a judiciary that has not always proved itself to be worthy of its title. Not that we would accuse in any way the many judicial servants who have tirelessly and in fairness made judgement in millions of legal cases.

But the right to trial by jury is quintessential to the birthrights of this nation's citizens. Men. women and children who one can rightly call the salt of the earth.

This right is a right which other nations and freedom loving people are jealous of. A right bought and defended with centuries of the blood shed by yours and my forefathers. This is a right for which it would again be worth taking up arms to defend.

The Germans* would have taken it from us if they could but we fought. It cost many gallons of English, British and Commonwealth blood. But we fought.

I can only believe that the changes that are being envisaged have been dreamt up by people who put convenience before right. People, this is cultural and not racial, that were not brought up as English men and women.

They may have been born here and not necessarily naturalised, but I question their cultural upbringing and background.

Maybe we can sum this problem up with the motto: "Lest we forget."

*Germany to this day does not have trial by jury and the Irish High court for one has refused to accept requests from German authorities for reason that Germany does not have a truly independent judicial system. They have a saying "Wessen Brot ich ess, dessen Lied ich sing". This can be translated as "he who pays the piper calls the tune" but it actually goes deeper. Not just who pays, but "he who feeds me orders me what to sing"

*A citizen's right to a trial by jury is a central feature of the United States Constitution. It is considered a fundamental principle of the American legal system. Laws and regulations governing jury selection and conviction/acquittal requirements vary from state to state, but the fundamental right itself is mentioned five times in the Constitution: Once in the original text and four times in the Bill of Rights.

The American system utilizes three types of juries: Investigative grand juries, charged with determining whether enough evidence exists to warrant a criminal indictment; petit juries, which listen to the evidence presented during the course of a criminal trial and are charged with determining the guilt or innocence of the accused party; and civil juries, which are charged with evaluating civil lawsuits.