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The Government has long been talking about reforming the way jury trials are conducted.
Since the credit crunch, the jury system is facing even more pressure to “streamline”. As I have done jury service recently, these rumblings make me nervous.
When I was called up, I only knew of one other person who had ever done it; everybody else had ducked out. Ahead lay men in wigs, the solemnity of court, the raw theatre of cross- examinations and the anthropological thrill of being shut in a room with 11 strangers — what was there not to like?
The date arrived and I got up early to get inducted into Middlesex Magistrates Court. Various officials came in and announced things, treating us with the same studied calm that you would a volatile mental patient. A few cases got cancelled: defendants found they had better things to do than stand trial.
The case I was called to started after lunch. It was alarming how many people struggled to read the oath. The defendant was a middle-aged man accused of indecent assault against a 12-year-old girl on a train. With no witnesses, it was one word against another.
I thought the girl was muddled on minor points (like his accent), but compelling on the main ones. I didn't buy what the man said to explain why he hid when the police searched the train, or why he changed all his clothes. If he was lying then it could only be because the girl was telling the truth.
It seemed fairly straightforward. On retiring, we took a preliminary vote. I was amazed — it was the opposite of 12 Angry Men: 11 people thought he was not guilty; it was one angry woman.
Discussions began, in earnest, with me having to explain myself. We argued for five hours and in the end asked the judge for a majority, rather than unanimous verdict. I was adamant that if he was getting off, the girl needed to know not everybody had dismissed her evidence.
As an experience, it was fascinating, exhausting, frustrating. But ultimately, democracy in action is always thrilling. I left with faith in the jury system.
As far as I could see, only two small changes are needed. First, defendants who fail to show up need much sharper punishments for the thousands of pounds they waste. Second, jury duty should be a mandatory civic obligation, with absolutely no exceptions. It is a vital institution but far too easy for busy, educated people to dodge.
Fond farewell to a hive of creativity
Once upon a time, artists' studios were scattered all over London. Now, the last big, decently priced studio in west London is set to close.
Great Western Studios, a vast brick building that stands between the Paddington railway lines and the Westway flyover, has been home to more than 150 self-employed artists since 1994, when Simon and Nick Kirkham converted a redundant rail company warehouse.
In order not to live in rarefied separation from the local community, the artists hold a bi-annual open studio weekend when the heavy metal doors are thrown open to the public, who are free to buy or just browse around three floors. This weekend is the final one.
The artists range from White Cubers Darren Almond and Neil Tate to sculptors Emily Young and Paul Vanstone. In between are hat makers, graphic artists, jewellers, cabinet makers, photographers, mosaicists, fetish makers (well, just the one) and potters.
The majority are painters, who come in every style from the tiny intricacies of Jeremy Dickinson's depictions of battered Corgi cars to Felicity Warbrick's huge canvases of Napoleon's throne room.
This weekend will be Great Western's last hurrah: and your last chance to visit an eccentric hive before it is reduced to rubble, to make way for Crossrail.
George: the king of cool
Thinking myself fairly unshockable, I never imagined I'd find myself on the far side of the generation gap. Yet I have, because the gap never turns out to be what you expect.
A conversation with my son meandered way off-piste when he name-checked the Queen. Wanting to buy him a 17th-birthday suit, I had requested some style pointers. Never once taking his eyes from his X-box, he barked the following instructions: “For weekday clothes, think George Clooney. He looks like he's just stepped out of a black-tie event to chill for five. Put it like this, if he and the Queen rolled the red-carpet scene together, that would be sweet.”
“You like the Queen?" I said. "Sure I like her. She's pimping 24/7. Even though she's married to a lame jeb who isn't even a king, she's cool. Get me? She's a rocksteady legend. When she's dressed up in her furs and bling, she looks like Snoop Dogg. They could swap clothes and no one would know. Trust.” I'm just so glad I know that now.
Mice have dug up my road again
In a world where scientists have discovered we share 85 per cent of our DNA with mice, don't you yearn for inventions that would have helpful applications to normal life? Like why can't we map what goes on beneath our own streets?
Over the past four months the junction of Harrow Road and Ladbroke Grove, which I pass most days, has been dug up at least six times. No sooner have they buried the new sewage pipes, than another trench is dug to lay cables, then a water pipe bursts.
When it comes to the utilities co-ordinating their work to avoid digging up the same stretch one after another, they are 100 per cent mouse-brained.
Reader views (3)
Liza Campbell I think the system works. Not quite sure why 12, but I also had the same experience. In fact our judge refused our first decision and told us to moot the case more after two further days and seeking the judges guidance we switched from our original decision to a lesser charge.
What I could never get my head around was when the judges told us to ignore some key evidence which in the end none of us did
- Gary, Brentwood 1
How did you leave with faith in the jury system if you are adamant that the man was guilty?
- Prototypical Englishman, Wormwood Scrubs
jury duty should be a mandatory civic obligation, with absolutely no exceptions.
There will always be exceptions such as: The severely disabled, The old,and Students. What about Doctors, Nurses and Police officers who are more use doing their jobs rather wasting 2 weeks of their time in a court? I have done Jury service myself years ago when I was fit and well, these days I have severe heart disease and could never cope with the travel to and from the Court, let alone sit in a courtroom on a hard bench. There are plenty of Fit, well educated people on Jobseekers allowance that could spend time on a Jury without adding any extra expense to the taxpayers apart from a travel and food allowance.
- Oldgattonian, London
