Westminster Watch

The Secret Barrister has to dig deep to find the few scraps marked ‘justice’ but unearths four things we can learn from the parties’ pledges  

General election manifesto launches often cast the criminal justice system in the role of the naughty child of Christmas lore.  

Luke Robins-Grace weighs up what justice should be worth at election time  

Justice is not a commodity but as the saying goes: you get what you pay for, and most people would agree that the price recent governments have been prepared to pay for our system of justice does not reflect its value to society.  

As the snap general election is announced, the Ministry of Justice turns 10 and faces similar challenges to those in the dying days of the Blair government, writes Mark Hatcher  

On 9 May the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) will celebrate its 10th anniversary.  

With the formal process of disengagement about to begin, Mark Hatcher examines the challenges faced in converting a huge corpus of EU law and delivering Brexit  

Brexit continues to dominate life at Westminster.  

With the triggering of Art 50 imminent, Mark Hatcher examines preparations in Westminster and Whitehall, with a white paper providing some comfort to the Bar  

Tucked away behind the Old Treasury Building at No 9 Downing Street is the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU).  

Six months on from the ‘quiet revolution’, Theresa May’s vision for post-Brexit Britain is becoming clearer. Mark Hatcher examines the Prime Minister’s domestic agenda  

A little over six months after she was appointed Prime Minister last July, and barely eight weeks before the government formally invokes Art 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, Theresa May’s vision for post-Brexit Britain is becoming clearer.  

In this ‘post-truth’ age, Mark Hatcher looks back at the seismic events of 2016 and what will dominate Westminster politics in 2017 – is change in the air?   

2016 will be remembered for two seismic events which have rocked the political classes on both sides of the Atlantic: the decision of the UK to withdraw from the EU and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.  

Rule of law and judicial independence are critical to the maintenance of a healthy body politic as we face some of the greatest challenges of our time, writes Mark Hatcher  

Earlier this year Donald Trump claimed that US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel of San Diego was unfit to hear two lawsuits against the now-defunct Trump University because ‘he’s a Mexican’.  

The online support portal for barristers’ wellbeing and mental health has gone live  

A new portal giving barristers, clerks and chambers staff access to guidance, tips, support and contacts for help on all matters concerning wellbeing was launched on 15 October at the Annual Bar Conference.  

Mark Hatcher on the Great Repeal Bill, legal black holes and bonfires of red tape that will dominate Whitehall and Westminster for the foreseeable future  

The Foreign Office document published at the beginning of the year which outlined the process for withdrawing from the European Union (Cm 9216) was unequivocal.