‘Would I ever leave the criminal bar?’, muses Kate Riekstina, a barrister at Rose Court Chambers. ‘My immediate reaction is no. I love my job. But there is temptation – consistent income, annual leave, sick pay, maternity leave. This really is now or never.’
Ms Riekstina’s tweet of Wednesday this week gets to the nub. As the Crown courts stutter and stall amid the impact of an indefinite strike, we have reached an inflexion point for the dispensation of criminal justice in England and Wales.
There is no going back now. Either the government of Liz Truss (in all probability) capitulates, or the criminal bar appears doomed. Criminal barristers are fast becoming an endangered species already – one in four juniors has bailed out since 2016.
So what are the chances of a climbdown at Petty France? Not good, ostensibly.
In an August letter to the Guardian, another barrister asked why ‘the government’s attitude to the criminal justice system is different to its attitude towards education and health’.
My own answer to that would be another question: is it really so different? Those sectors too are faced by industrial action – or threat of action – arising from the government’s flat refusal to countenance wage rises for public services that even come close to matching the cost of living.
And yet, I wonder. How unusual for The Times to back the bar strike, as it did in a leader of 23 August. Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers are not known for their advocacy of organised labour.
That support may have something to do with the types of people Times journalists went to university with and/or bump into at dinner parties. But Murdoch papers do like to be on the winning side.
Then there are the comments of outgoing bar chair Jo Sidhu. This week he alluded obliquely to a ‘turning point’. We’ll see.
I would not be surprised to see the strike settled quickly by the next lord chancellor (though I can claim no insider knowledge). The sums involved are relatively minor and ministers will be able credibly to argue – as The Times did – that the bar’s case is exceptional. But then any resolution also depends on who gets the job.
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