Ken Clarke should not judge all lawyers by the standards of the few.
Perhaps the statute-chasing, ambulance-following, human rights adherents he so loathes are indeed lurking in huddles just waiting to make millions out of every piece of small business-crushing legislation created by the 1,300 people he calls his colleagues in parliament – but that is unlikely to represent the whole profession, as he well knows.
If he really wants to crush the profession totally he ought to: throw all lawyers out of parliament (which should halve its size), so it is no longer their last resting place; demolish the courts, especially the senior court, which will not be able to state the law as it is enacted; and abolish legal aid altogether (clearly on the cards).
Most solicitors and barristers are in small businesses; the very type of business that his government purports to support.
We have seen no evidence of this yet.
He should remember that lawyer-bashing is so ‘last century’. This century is politician-bashing time.
He needs to update himself.
Deborah Daniels, Bird & Daniels, Shipley, West Yorkshire
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