It will soon matter (even) more how much loot resides in the ‘bank of mum and dad’

There are few things as dispiriting in modern public life as the sight of the great and good pulling up the drawbridge of opportunity. David Willetts, ‘the thinking person’s Tory MP’, has written a provocative book about the phenomenon: the unambiguously titled The Pinch: How the baby-boomers stole their children’s future. A pithy shorthand describes the trend as ‘inter-generational theft’.

One is put in mind of this tome by the regulator’s latest missive on trainee salaries, which is clearly preparing the ground to scrap the mandatory minima. As the Junior Lawyers Division has protested, the effect on diversity in the profession will be profound; if you want to become a solicitor, it will soon matter (even) more than it has for decades how much loot resides in the ‘bank of mum and dad’. Groaning under the weight of graduate debt, impecunious aspiring lawyers will soon be expected to subsidise the formative stages of their careers too. This will render the very species of the ‘impecunious aspiring lawyer’ virtually extinct.

‘Market forces!’ apologists will protest - as if the law of the jungle (pun intended) is somehow irresistible and human agency is a monstrous incursion on its primacy.

The SRA’s tortured language in acknowledging the consequences of abolition reflects its clear discomfort. But it is not too late for a rethink. One can only hope the baby-boomers on the SRA board listen to the JLD.