Courts will lose £80m as plan to give victims a voice adds to costs - Law - Times Online

This is a ZaNu Labour classic. They have given the "right" to victims to be represented in criminal cases - so that they can feel involved in the process and achieve some "closure" as Oprah Winfrey might say. They will not add to the process. They will simply be able to have their say (or hire lawyers - at the taxpayers' expense if they are entitled to legal aid - to do so). This will cost an estimated £80 million - depending on how many British people have a taste for such emotionalism. This is all to make people better disposed towards the justice system. I can't see what it does for them to speak in court, rather than on the steps afterwards (if they are so inclined).

This "feelgood" initiative is unfunded. Probably it was made up on the spur of the moment in some meeting of spin doctors. No extra money will be provided to the courts service to deal with it. So costs must be slashed - to the detriment of justice itself. Which matters? Justice, or the ability for people to share their pain in public? The answer seems obvious to me, but since the mass hysteria after Princess Diana's untimely death, I am not so sure I understand my fellow-Englishmen.

There has been zero public interest in protecting the legal rights of citizens. Magna Carta has been repealed without a murmur. Maybe the right to emote will be more valued.

Courts will lose £80m as plan to give victims a voice adds to costs - Law - Times Online