Now that the Bar Council has decided to imitate the stupidity of our side of the profession and allow barristers to practise in an alternative business structure, why is it continuing to maintain the pretence of the cab-rank principle?

This only ever existed in the way that the Ritz Hotel is open to all. A barrister and/or their clerk will pick and choose which cases they accept, and that decision is largely based on how much the brief will pay. Yes, in theory you can have Mr Hugefees QC for your case about a dodgy washing machine – if you do not mind paying £20,000 for the privilege.

Now that professional standards are being abandoned wholesale in favour of profitability, the pretence that this principle actually exists is anachronistic nonsense.

Michael Loveridge, Clitheroe