Big Issue's - Access To Justice
One of the biggest issues a new government would need to address is the huge problem of access to justice in our society. As touched upon in previous articles, since 2013 our court system has been crumbling due to colossal budget cuts to legal aid provision and funding for services assisting those without access to their own legal support. This has lead to a huge increase in the number of litigants in person, having to take on the difficult court system alone.
This has had a widespread impact. It has likely impacted the homelessness crisis because people no longer have the support they need to suspend orders for eviction - which gives them time to either catch up on arrears payments or find a new form of affordable living. Victims of domestic abuse are being forced to represent themselves against their abuser in custody battles, due to high evidential thresholds designed to limit public spending. Charities designed to help people without legal aid have an increased workload every year whilst lacking the increasing budgets to meet demand.
Access to justice is one of the most important issues to allow our society to function. Equal ability to enforce and use the law is fundamental to our democracy and the truth is currently, it is dying out in the United Kingdom. The legal system in the UK needs investment to allow for its most central principle be maintained - justice.
Big Issue's - Concluding Thoughts
There’s never been so many things to think about when casting your vote in a general election. In this series we’ve aimed to shed some light on a few of the key political issues but there is so much we haven’t been able to touch.
Do we need reforms to the welfare state? Can we say that universal credit is really working? Do we need to manage the deficit? Is it wise to end austerity? How can we effectively manage immigration? What should we do about trident? Why haven’t we changed our outdated electoral system? Should we really still have a monarchy? And what about devolution? Should Scotland be given a second independence referendum? How can we resolve the political crisis in Northern Ireland? Should we reverse reforms to the powers of the unions? How can we better reduce crime? Should we abolish tuition fees? How can we reform and improve our education system?
Our country feels more in chaos then ever. You may think our two candidates to be the next prime minister are completely and utterly incomepetent, and no one could blame you for thinking so. Whether it’s Johnson’s absolute inability to speak the truth, or Corbyn’s failure to deal with the problems in his party regarding anti-semitism - a convincing argument can be made that they have both shown themselves to be unfit for the office of Prime Minister. Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats have become a single policy party, incapable of doing anything other than sobbing about a referendum they lost three years ago. The Green Party plods along still failing to provide a credible left wing alternative. The SNP threatens to tear the United Kingdom apart, and don’t get me started on the Brexit Party.
This won’t be the election where we get it right. However, we can use this election to think about where we want to go as a country. When casting your vote, draw your eyes away from the drama of the media and think about the issues that are most important to you. Look at the manifestos of each party. This isn’t an election where all the parties are the same, this is an election with competing visions for the future of the United Kingdom - perhaps all flawed.
After the election, we should not stop engaging with politics. We need to rally together and think about how we can to a better point before the country hits the polls again. We need to work out how to improve political education. We need to reform our democratic tools, such as our broken voting system, so citizens can effectively participate in politics. We need to work out what and priorities are and perhaps most importantly, try to find a way to improve the quality of political debate in the UK.
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