Hard Cases

Martin Kelly has noticed yet another of the longstanding, unrelated Political Class agenda items that the expenses scandal has provided an excuse to dust down from the shelf:

I had meant to post something last week about the outcry over MP's accused of assorted crimes claiming Legal Aid. What is truly scandalous is Gordon Brown appearing to prejudge matters currently before the court in reaction to an illiberal outburst from David Cameron.

Any attack on Legal Aid is an attack on access to justice. Part of these accuseds' arguments seems to be that the courts have no right to try them. That defence can only be established in front of a court, and they should have the same rights as all other accused persons to whatever assistance might be available to them in order to advance it. If Cameron and the Tories have a problem with the very existence of Legal Aid, and I suspect that many of them do, they should just come right out and say so.