Greg Baker

Senior investigating paralegal at the NMC. LLM in medical law and ethics and called to the bar (not practising). Enjoying life in Dorking.

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

@ProfFrancesca Signed.

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

@Shiv_who_burns I r Macron apparently

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

Excellent to see the marvellous @AngineDPoitrine on last night’s @BBCLater great line up, but these aliens are splendid!

[Big Donkey 🐢 @BigDonkey28]

I’m starting a petition for #AngineDePoitrine to play the 2027 #SuperBowl halftime show

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

@AlisonMoyet Happy birthday! Hope it’s fabulous.

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

@history99917180 Really good to hear mate

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

@hughlaurie Happy belated birthday!

[Oliver Kamm @OliverKamm]

I enjoyed this tweet. Callaghan shows aplomb & wisdom as Labour crashes. But some replies criticised @labour_history’s grammar, insisting that ‘less votes’ is incorrect. They’re wrong. I’ll explain. 🧵

[Joanna Hardy-Susskind @Joanna__Hardy]

David Lammy’s proposals to restrict the right to jury trial have been examined by the Justice Committee of the House of Commons.

And. Well. Um.

It’s *quite* the report.

I think it’s actually worse than politely scathing.

It’s embarrassing 👇🏼🪡🧵

[Dan Neidle @DanNeidle]

Solid debunking from Rowan. If you’re interested in tax, do consider following him!

[Rowan Morrow-McDade @RowanMMcDade]

An absolute non-story by The Guardian yesterday about Amazon’s tax affairs, by a journalist who either doesn’t understand tax or is pretending not to. 1/n

[Karl Turner MP @KarlTurnerMP]

1/ @CommonsJustice report on @DavidLammy's jury trials plan is a devastating indictment of everything I've been saying. These are the biggest changes in 50 years, but there's been too little scrutiny, too little evidence, and too little thought given to the consequences. 🧵

[Joanna Hardy-Susskind @Joanna__Hardy]

Meanwhile, AI use in court continues to be a flaming wheelie bin fire:

[Stephen Davies @sdavieslaw]

The Prison Van That Never Showed Up… Again!

With the Crown Court backlog now sitting at over 80,000 cases, you’d think getting defendants to court on time would be an absolute priority.

Think again!

It’s the first day of trial. You arrive early, conference notes ready, evidence digested, arguments sharpened. You waste 5–10 minutes just getting through security into the cells, and another 5–10 minutes getting out. Then you discover the defendant hasn’t even arrived.
The 30-minute conference you planned for 9:30am slowly evaporates.

By 10:00am the case is called. The judge and advocates are left asking the obvious question. The suggestion that the defendant has “refused” is met with visible scepticism.

By 11:30am it’s clear: the prison van still hasn’t shown up. The case is stood out or adjourned. Another ineffective hearing. Another day lost.

This isn’t a rare glitch. It’s becoming routine. A report in The Times this week described late (or non-existent) prisoner delivery by the private escort contractors as a “significant cause” of court delays across the country.

The human and financial cost is staggering:

• Defendants left in holding cells for hours longer than necessary
• Victims and witnesses left hanging yet again
• Court time and public money burned
• Barristers and solicitors sitting around unpaid and unproductive

We’re already fighting a record backlog. When the vans don’t turn up, the entire system grinds even slower.

The judges, court staff and advocates are doing their best with the resources they’re given. The real failure lies with the Ministry of Justice’s continued acceptance of this level of service from the outsourced Prisoner Escort and Custody Service (PECS) contractors - principally Serco and GEOAmey.

No government has been properly transparent about the commercial contracts. What exactly do these multi-billion-pound deals actually require of the providers when it comes to timely delivery?What are the real penalties for repeated failure?

MPs and journalists need to keep hammering this issue. The public should be outraged - because it’s our money being wasted.

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

@TfL Thank you

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

@TfL is there any reason that I’ve had to wait for an hour and a half for a 465 from Dorking - when on the TFL Go app there was a bus due in 2 minutes at the start of the wait. Third time this has happened to me on a Sunday in the last month or so.

[Stephen Davies @sdavieslaw]

Isleworth Crown Court is now listing trials for December 2030.

Let that sink in. We’re in May 2026 — and we’re only a few weeks away from trials being listed in 2031.

This isn’t the fault of the judges or court staff at Isleworth, who are working flat out with the resources they’ve been given. The blame lies squarely with the Ministry of Justice’s weapons-grade incompetence and chronic failure to manage the courts properly.

Delays on this scale are not just inconvenient — they’re a serious injustice. Defendants wait years in limbo. Victims wait years for justice. Witnesses forget. Evidence degrades. Lives are put on hold.

And now we’re being told that this entirely avoidable crisis is being used as an excuse by the Government to chip away at jury trials.

That is not reform. It’s disgraceful.

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

@history99917180 Good luck mate, as a fellow OU alumni I know how tough it can be and I had none of the hurdles you so adeptly passed. You’re a bloody legend mate. Much love.

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

@v_j_freeman At the Cardiacs! I used to drink with some of them when I was a young man in Kingston!

[Greg Baker @greg_baker]

@Joanna__Hardy I miss the days of free owls 🦉