Member

There is also the issue of public confidence. When the state takes a life, transparency is essential. We are the United Kingdom; we have led the world in these principles. We are not Iran or some third-world country trying to figure out how to dictate its people. If Parliament were to accept that open justice may be displaced by default, because of operational pressure or institutional anxiety, it would become easier to extend that logic elsewhere. This is how fundamental principles are eroded: incremental exceptions that seem reasonable in isolation. Maybe it is trite for me, as a former practising barrister, to say that hard cases make bad law; in this case, it would seem hard politics does too.