Michael Mansfield QC waded into the backlash over the Government's 'Global Law Summit' which celebrated the Magna Carta but attracted much comment from legal aid practitioners on the hypocrisy of such an event when the Government is slashing legal aid and reducing access to justice. In a lecture, 'The Democratic Deficit',  at the University of Huddersfield,  Mr Mansfield has lashed out at  the House of Commons as 'stagnant, antiquated and corrupt'. He argued that the current 'cash for access' controversy surrounding Conservative MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Labour MP Jack Straw was as serious as the Parliamentary expenses row before the last general election. Now, with a new election looming, Mr Mansfield told his audience that 'the system is broken and does not just need mending. We need a different system. Vote for the usual suspects and you get more of the same.' He claimed that an opportunity had arisen for people to say 'enough is enough' and he argued that a democratic revolution is taking place, symbolised by a sequence of Reimagining Democracy meetings taking place in several large UK cities.

Legal aid cuts

The controversial lawyer was speaking at the second annual Social Justice Lecture to take place at the University. The series is inspired by an innovative town centre Legal Advice Clinic (LAC) launched by law lecturers and students and now marking its first anniversary. Before the lecture, a five-strong student team from the LAC described the venture, how it was inspired by the cuts in legal aid, and they provided facts and figures that illustrated the demand for its services. Mr Mansfield claimed that the Government’s cuts in Legal Aid – under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act – were motivated not by economic necessity, but by dogma. He drew on a sequence of high profile cases and campaigns in which he has been involved in order to illustrate his theory that a 'baton of change' was passed on by individuals and groups who had the 'courage and will' to seek transparency and accountability from the authorities and politicians.He cited the Stephen Lawrence case and the persistence of the murdered teenager’s parents in their quest for justice. Doreen Lawrence was eventually elevated to the House of Lords – 'an amazing transformation for an ordinary person'.

Failure of democracy

Mr Mansfield drew parallels with episodes such as Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland, the Marchioness river boat disaster on the Thames, the Hillsborough tragedy and the Iraq War, when, he said, the public was misled and the democratic system failed. In all of these cases, families had been persistent in their demands for transparency and they had challenged the “collusion” that Mr Mansfield believes is at the heart of the political establishment.He also described a campaign to reverse cuts to the funding of a hospital in Lewisham. This has led to mass protests and a People’s Commission of Inquiry, of which Mr Mansfield was a member. 'It was one of the most powerful experiences I have had,' he said. 

Magna Carta

The Social Justice Lecture was introduced by Sean Curley, who heads the University of Huddersfield’s Law School. He raised the legacy of Magna Carta – which reminded the king that the law was above him – and he paid tribute to Michael Mansfield, who also 'reminded the great and the powerful that they are subject to the law.'