Max Hardy

On hair and make up duty for the school play tomorrow. Have a horrible feeling they misunderstood when I said I had a lot of experience with wigs.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception today. Big day for Marys.

BBC news: Water leak in Louvre damages hundreds of books

for the beleaguered museum, it’s a new l’eau

If anyone should know the value of jury trial it’s Sir Keir Starmer. So his silence as David Lammy takes a hammer to the institution suggests that perhaps he scorns the judgement of the common man and woman. The same people who elected him and his party.

Who says you can’t please all the people all of the time?

The UK maintains a continuous at sea nuclear deterrent protecting you from autocrats and enemies abroad. Jury trial is a continuous on land deterrent protecting you from autocrats and enemies at home. You don’t want to find out what happens when it’s gone.

That’s the thing about life. Sometimes you’re a young Nigella Lawson playing croquet; other times, you just end up inexplicably carrying a sedan chair.

Men, what is stopping you from dressing like this?

Pleading ‘not guilty’ is not gaming the system.
It is testing the system.
And the system is failing.

Don't miss the Criminal Bar Association conference this Saturday. There will be much to discuss and a keynote speech from HH Geoffrey Rivlin KC, a stalwart defender of jury trial: criminalbar.com/events/the-winter-conference-2025/

Prisoners being released in error hand over fist due to overcrowding and understaffing so the government's answer to that is to accelerate trials and speed up the supply of prisoners. Like watching Charlie Chaplin operate a conveyor belt.

The cuts to jury trial being announced today are 100% about money. If the state can’t afford to prosecute defendants in a timely manner it needs to decide which defendants genuinely need prosecuting at all. Expediency is the bluntest axe and it leaves the worst wounds.
🪓 ⚖️

Landmark is a dream. Strongest possible recommendation for the Bath House in Warwickshire.

A dark tower against a dark sky with a sliver of orange light at the horizon and bare trees to right and left.

This week in 2021 we wanted somewhere to stay for a visit to Charleston in Sussex. A dark tower at the end of a lonely track was good value, probably because no one else fancied it on a dark winter night.

Was teaching advocacy to 12 pupil barristers today and 10 of them were women. In the midst of the criminal justice system’s convulsions the criminal Bar is quietly undergoing a seismic demographic shift.

Have finally plucked up the courage to enter the barre room at my gym for a class tomorrow. Then off to court and a Christmas party in the evening. So I’ll be going from the barre to the Bar to a bar.

Causing chaos in the playground by earnestly urging my children to remember that ‘Sharing is despairing.’

I remember when studying Early Modern History constantly having to read tracts and pamphlets and thinking who were these tiresome losers foisting their opinions on the world. Then I click start post on Substack.

9yo: Hey Siri, is Santa Claus real?
Wife: NO! Give me the phone right now.
🎅

Remove juries and who'll judge the judges?
substack.com/inbox/post/1...

If you want an immediate antidote to the vacuous torrents of online slop engulfing us all read, right now, any play by Sir Tom Stoppard. He was the Shakespeare of the 20th century.

Remove juries and who'll judge the judges?
substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Not one for standing on ceremony but always a certain awkwardness when a witness addresses you by first name from the witness box.

Wife: A man offered me a seat on the Tube today. Do you think he thought I was pregnant? Or old?
Me: He thought you were beautiful.

Had classroom visit with the 6yo today who proudly showed me all his workbooks. When he gets home I’m going to show him a skeleton argument, some Grounds of Appeal and a Bad Character Application to show him the homework never ends.

We were in the EU for less than 50 years and we got a referendum on it. We've had jury trial for over 800 years; perhaps the people should get a say in retaining it?

There is one question I'd like David Lammy and his jury shrinking supporters to answer which is that if we don't need jury trial any more for the majority of cases why do we need it for ANY cases?

Lord Falconer on Today saying that the backlog justifies the virtual abolition of jury trial is like saying if there is a fire in your house you should blow it up rather than extinguish the fire. The backlog is temporary, jury trial should be forever.

Jury trial is democratic process and elections are the decision of millions of randos who don’t have to give reasons.

We should abolish democracy for almost exactly the same reasons. Or perhaps you can explain the difference? Jury service is your pay to play in English society and it’s your job to watch the watchmen.