Sir – Some recent items in your paper led me on to broader thoughts.

I’ve noticed that while some violent offenders have been spared prison sentences, some people who have committed property offences – having lost their good names and employment prospects – have been gaoled with, it seems, no valid gains for society.

Has this something to do with our antiquated justice system which is, almost unbelievably, based on Anglo-Saxon ideas?

This includes magistrates being appointed by hole-in-the-corner methods and judges being predominately from one background.

Even more ludicrous is our ‘adversarial’ prosecution and defence system by which lawyers’ careers can be advanced by securing an incorrect verdict.

More advanced European countries use the ‘inquisitorial’ system in which finding the truth is more important than court games.

To my knowledge, it’s only the ongoing Liberal Party which has a policy of radical structural law reforms.

These, along with its policies on universal inheritance and the injustices of the leasehold system, are the new politics. Re-runs of the battles of the 1970s and 1980s are the old ones.

Roger Jenking
Oxford Liberal Party
Headington