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Fraud (Trials without a Jury) Bill

I will try to juggle my parallel arguments at the same time, Mr. Deputy Speaker. First, I want to deal with the serial bad points made by Opposition Members. The point made by the hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) about the Lord Chief Justice’s protocol does not work—the House and the other place will want to take note of this—because, although there is a point of principle about protecting the jury system, all the points that we are hearing are the same ones that were made before the protocol was ever even dreamed of as a safeguard. The protocol cannot be prayed in aid of the arguments that hon. Members have been making over the years. The House rejected those arguments; if it had not done so, we would not have section 43 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The hon. Gentleman makes a hollow point because the two things are not connected. We have also heard the hollow threat of repeal—a cheap political point about a stage in the future that will not come about because Labour Members will not have to relinquish responsibility for these matters. We will thus not have a short-term measure. That cheap party political point was on a par with many of the cheap points that have been made today. There is no new point of principle here. The House has withdrawn people’s right to a trial by jury when charged with certain offences over the years. When I was a young law student, I read that there was a right to a trial by jury when drink-driving was first introduced. For reasons of administrative justice, that right was taken away by the Conservative Government of the 1970s. There is thus no new point of principle about withdrawing the right to a trial by jury for certain offences. My hon. and learned Friend the Member for Medway (Mr. Marshall-Andrews) made a thoroughly bad point about the corruptibility of judges, which the Solicitor-General and I showed to be ridiculous. I think that my hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor-General said that it was facetious—and it was. The point was not worthy of debate.