‘The future holds few certainties for legal aid practitioners, whichever party forms the next government.’ Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

That observation, contained in the Gazette of 23 April 1997, eight days before the New Labour dawn, has become a truism. Still, one thing we can say with a great deal of certainty is that there won’t be any more money, at least not from general taxation. This is disappointing. Ensuring access to justice for all is the sine qua non of a civilised nation.

But let’s cut to the chase. There are no votes in legal aid. All the electors read in the hyperventilating tabloids are grossly misleading tales of fatcat lawyers coining it at the expense of put-upon ‘middle England’ (wherever that is – Worcester or Ilkley perhaps). And if health and education are to be shielded from the full blast of fiscal austerity, that means even more swingeing cuts at the other government departments, including justice.

Less certain is the extent to which a Conservative administration would be quite so gung-ho about Falconer’s legal services revolution and alternative business structures. Henry Bellingham, the increasingly high-profile shadow justice minister, has after all described ABSs as ‘one more assault on the high-street solicitor’. As one Gazette correspondent notes this week, that debate may have still further to run.