Criminal Justice (Mode of Trial) (No. 2) Bill
4:32 pm
Lord Williams of Mostyn (Attorney General, Law Officers' Department; Labour)
My Lords, the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, says that that is clever. It was not intended to be; it was intended to be a purely factual description. Indeed, I shall paraphrase what the former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, said. I recognise that it is a paraphrase but I believe that it is a fair one. It was, "Should we entirely leave the decision to the defendant whose overwhelming motive may not be the securing of the interests of justice in the public community?"