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The UK’s criminal justice system is about to collapse – and while the media will happily discuss efforts to put sticking-plasters over the breakages, they’re not telling you why this is happening and who’s responsible.

The truth is damning: David Cameron, George Osborne, and the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition they led deliberately dismantled the courts, starved the system of funds, slashed legal aid, closed buildings, and drove out experienced staff – all in the name of austerity.

Now, more than a decade later, victims are waiting years for justice, criminals are walking free, and your right to a fair trial by jury is on the chopping block – not because of “efficiency” or “modernisation”, but because of political vandalism.

A decade of destruction disguised as reform

In 2010, David Cameron and George Osborne entered Downing Street with one goal above all others: cut public spending to the bone, regardless of the consequences.

The Ministry of Justice was an easy target. Between 2010 and 2020, it saw budget cuts of more than 25 per cent — some of the deepest of any government department.

As a result:

• Half of all magistrates’ courts in England and Wales were shut down, cutting their number from more than 600 to around 300.

• Court staff numbers were slashed by thousands, leading to chaos in scheduling, trial preparation and record-keeping.

• Legal aid was gutted, leaving defendants to represent themselves, clogging up hearings and delaying justice.

• Judicial sitting days were cut, creating artificial backlogs that worsened year after year.

This wasn’t accidental mismanagement — it was ideological warfare against the principle of publicly funded justice. Cameron and Osborne didn’t believe the state should provide it — and they made sure it couldn’t.

These austerity measures dramatically reduced the justice system’s capacity to handle cases.

The Crown Court backlog had already reached 40,000+ before the pandemic – and Covid-19 only worsened the crisis, exposing the fragility created by a decade of under-investment.

Legal professionals, including judges and barristers, repeatedly warned the government about the risk of overwhelming delays.

The Criminal Bar Association and the Law Society have both pointed to austerity as the original sin behind the crisis.

77,000 delays – and counting

Fast forward to today, and we’re reaping the consequences.

There are now more than 77,000 criminal cases stuck in the Crown Court backlog.

Some trials are being listed as far ahead as 2029.

While politicians talk about “delays”, let’s be clear what that means in real life:

• Victims waiting years to face their attackers in court.

• Witnesses forced to relive trauma over and over.

• Defendants held in limbo, unable to move on, even if innocent.

• Guilty parties remaining on the streets, free to offend again.

This is not just a bureaucratic mess — it’s a national failure that puts the public at risk every single day.

Is the answer really scrapping the keystone of justice since the 1200s?

Enter Sir Brian Leveson, the former senior judge tasked with “fixing” the broken system.

His solution:

• Remove jury trials for an enormous range of offences, including stalking, indecent image possession, assaulting emergency workers, and low-level fraud.
• Create a new court division run by a judge and two magistrates.
• Shift thousands of cases out of the Crown Court and into overburdened magistrates’ courts.
• Increase sentence reductions to pressure defendants into early guilty pleas.

This isn’t reform – and it’s not even credible damage control. It’s a veneer of respectability slapped over the lawlessness that austerity has created.

We’re told it’s about speeding up justice — but it is really watering down justice – cutting corners; stripping rights; handing out lighter sentences to get people through the system faster — and straight back out onto the streets to commit more crimes.

Reduced penalties and faster processing don’t stop crime – they enable more of it. Offenders face lighter consequences, sooner — and victims are expected to accept that as “justice”.

This is not a justice system. It’s a conveyor belt — one that was designed to fail, and is now being rebuilt to make failure look official.

And what about the right to trial by jury? That is not an optional extra. It’s a pillar of democracy — the last line of defence against authoritarian overreach.

And now it is being dismantled to cover up a political mistake – ensuring that innocent people will suffer injustice, just as the guilty enjoy leniency.

The media silence

Where is the media outrage? Where are the headlines demanding answers from Cameron, Osborne, and their Lib Dem accomplices, starting with Nick Clegg?

It’s non-existent.

Instead, we get soothing phrases like “modernisation” and “efficiency”.

We’re told this is necessary, inevitable, overdue.

What we’re not told is that this crisis was manufactured by an entitled gang of upper-class vandals who then walked away and left others to clean it up.

Make no mistake: if this were happening in the NHS, or in schools, the outrage would be deafening.

But because it’s the courts — out of sight, and for many, out of mind — the architects of this disaster have escaped scrutiny.

It will only matter to the future victims of crimes for which Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and the others are the real culprits.

Be angry – because this will only get worse

Everybody in the UK should be incandescent with rage at what’s been done to our justice system.

You should be angry that victims are suffering in silence, that dangerous criminals are being let off the hook, and that your fundamental rights are being quietly rolled back.

You should be angry that the politicians responsible — David Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg, Chris Grayling, and their ilk — have faced no consequences for what they’ve done.

And you should be angry that current ministers are continuing this trajectory, rather than reversing it.

What needs to happen

Let’s clarify what must happen next if justice is to be restored:

• Immediate reinvestment in the justice system to pre-austerity levels.

• A full inquiry into the long-term impact of court closures, legal aid cuts and staffing losses.

• A halt to any erosion of jury trials, and the restoration of this right for all offences carrying a prison sentence.

• Accountability for those who deliberately created the conditions for this crisis — starting with David Cameron and his Cabinet.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

But justice dismantled is something far worse: a society where the powerful get away with everything — and the rest of us get nothing at all.

Don’t let them bury justice — fight back

This is a political crisis.

But it’s also a democratic one.

Unless ordinary people demand answers and accountability, this slow collapse will continue — until there is nothing left.

So don’t let them get away with it.

Here’s what you can do:

• Write to your local MP — demand they oppose the removal of jury trials and push for emergency reinvestment in the court system. Hold them publicly accountable if they don’t. You can locate your representative at TheyWorkForYou.com

• Contact your local newspapers, radio stations, and TV news outlets – ask why they’re not reporting on the root cause of this crisis: austerity. Challenge them to investigate the link between justice cuts and rising lawlessness.

• Write to your local court — ask whether they are affected by delays, reduced sentencing powers, or pressures to push cases through faster. Demand to know how your local justice system is being reshaped behind closed doors.

• Talk about this. Post about it. Share articles. Push back against the narrative that this is “reform”. Let people know this is not progress — it’s regression.

We are witnessing the slow dismantling of one of the pillars of our democracy — not because it failed, but because it was deliberately starved until it could no longer stand.

Don’t let them finish the job unchallenged.

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