iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I’ll be driving for ten hours in the next three days. Best audiobook or podcast recommendation? I mean - solid gold, miss your exit, type stuff? ❤️

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

My personal opinion? No. But that isn’t realistic, politically.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

And so, if this dismal idea is still on the table, I’d urge Alex Norris and Andy Burnham to listen to those of us on the ground. This. Will. Be. A. Mistake. We (along with many other interested groups and parties) stand ready to help you avoid making it. Just say the word.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Anyway. I don’t want to say I told you so. I just, with slow, miserable regret, remind you that some of us saw this coming. And now it’s here. Wearing the clothes of a compromise. But we should call it out for exactly what it is 👇🏼

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Don’t just take my word for it. The official report by the Commons Justice Committee didn’t muck about. They found this:

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

And, by the way, keeping tens of thousands of cases in the Magistrates’ Courts without a choice in the matter is still a restriction on jury trials - just by another method, and another name.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

These are what the decisions look like on the ground. Not high level declarations about ‘structural change’ but people’s cases - and people’s lives.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Seriously, get them to spell it out. Will they put a limit on a complainant’s evidence in a sexual assault? On the defendant’s police interview length? Will they put a limit on expert reconstruction evidence in a fatal road traffic incident? Or on forensic accountancy in a fraud?

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

* And here is the killer question - quite what is it that is going to be speeded up? Sure, you lose swearing a jury and the summing up. But you gain lay people (assisted by a legal advisor) having to decide and then write reasons. So where are things getting quicker?

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

And on that note - how long will they be volunteering for? Because a sexual assault jury roughly takes between 2-4 days to try. That’s to do justice to a complainant’s evidence - and to a defendant’s case. How long does the government say they should take?

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Because you can recruit all you like. You can target youngsters all you like. But the role of a volunteer Magistrate - in the middle of the working week - will attract older people in a position to give that (public-spirited) time.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

* What - and I cannot stress this enough - are you going to do about this 👇🏼

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

* Does the government accept it would be completely unacceptable for an offence with a sentence of, say, 18 months to go ‘part heard’ - and for a bit of the evidence to be heard in March and the rest in May?

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

* What will you do about cases going part-heard? Just so the public understand - in a jury trial we carry on every day until it’s finished. In the Magistrates’ Court if they run out of time it goes ‘part-heard’ - until a day the lay magistrates and parties can all come back.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

* If the safeguard of a ‘summary’ trial is an automatic right of appeal to the Crown Court - then that safeguard will be *more* important if someone’s liberty is on the line for up to 2 years. You won’t abolish that safeguard - the automatic right of appeal? Will you?

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Someone needs to answer the following questions, in the following order: * If the queue in the Magistrates’ is teetering around 380,000 - what assurances can you give that you aren’t moving one queue to another?

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

And, on that topic, complainants in sexual offences will need to be assured that Magistrates can deal with complex issues relating to third party disclosure of otherwise private material, s41 applications re previous sexual history - these are seldom suited to summary disposal.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Sexual assault should not be tried in the Magistrates’ Court with the defendant having no say in the matter. I wrote about that here: x.com/joanna__hard...

x.com

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Death by careless driving should not be tried in the Magistrates’ Court with the defendant having no say in the matter. I wrote about that here: x.com/joanna__hard...

x.com

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I suspected we would end up having this debate - in this way - as far back as 2021. And here we all are 👇🏼

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Be under no illusion: this is a significant victory for everyone who stuck their neck out and defended jury trials, day after day, clause by clause. But it is not a comprehensive victory. Magistrates should not be allowed to send people to prison for two years.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Whoever timed the early prison release scheme to coincide exactly with the pomp and ceremony of the fancy opening of the legal year doesn’t understand optics, doesn’t understand how the public perceive things, and doesn’t understand the press.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The queue for justice in the Magistrates’ Court is unacceptable. The MOJ surely won’t try to just shift some of the Crown Court queue there to solve one crisis whilst exacerbating another? … Will they? 🙂

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Millennials pretending to know what the ‘pension triple lock’ actually is tomorrow

static.klipy.com

Britney Spears Confundida

ALT: Britney Spears Confundida

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

J has to troop to the shop at 7:30am to buy more

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

my toddler is mad at me because i would not serve ‘seven weetabix’ for breakfast

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Will 16% of specialist rape courtrooms also be closed on a random Tuesday whilst 80,000 cases wait - or will we keep those ones open?

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

when you have a lawyer at the banana sticker company

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

If you want to speed up court proceedings then introducing a ‘please-Your-Honour-can-I-have-a-jury-trial’ hearing is really the opposite way to go about it.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

If you’re reading all the terror tales about AI labs and wondering - what will the world look like for our kids? What should they do? Then HOO BOY has my awesome brother-in-law written a book for you. And it’s out tomorrow. www.amazon.co.uk/What-Should-...

amazon.co.uk

What Should My Children Do?: How to Flourish in the Age of AI: Amazon.co.uk: Susskind, Daniel: 9780241791172: Books

Buy What Should My Children Do?: How to Flourish in the Age of AI 1 by Susskind, Daniel (ISBN: 9780241791172) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

There’s a ‘Pest Control’ van parked outside court - and I’m going home.

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Reposted by Joanna Hardy-Susskind

Simon Alvey @salvey1.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I've been listening to this brilliant series by @joannahs.bsky.social about the working of the legal system in England and Wales, which I somehow missed when it was first broadcast www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Sounds - You Do Not Have to Say Anything - Available Episodes

Listen to the latest episodes of You Do Not Have to Say Anything on BBC Sounds.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

New criminal barrister chat-up line just dropped. ‘Hey, you, in the nice wig. Which ‘priority tier’ do you work in? Can I interest you in a Flexible Date?’

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

So glad you like it! More soon 🫶

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Be quite good if it was illustrated tbf.

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

me reading the last few words of this 😳

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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Maybe they will all get TikTok accounts and stop telling me about their great victories of 1994.

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