DAVID SAVAGEElection addresses normally seem to have one theme: that the candidate will lead electors to the Promised Land.

I make no such promises.

I point to my record of ten years' service on the Council, during which time I have championed the cause of practitioners.

I have always said that it is not for me to look after the public interest.

There are others, alas all too many you may feel, who do that.

As a working partner in a small firm (I am one of three partners), I know the problems affecting the profession better than most people.Why should you vote for me as your number one choice? First, I will point to my record.

Over the years, I have sought to make constructive criticism of proposals placed before the Council.

All large organisations need an opposition.

I know my colleagues (too polite sometimes) may have been irritated, but as a fellow Council member said to me last month: 'You say the things we think, but dare not say.'Take, for example, the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors.

The cost of this is spiralling.

Just voting extra money is a palliative not a cure.

The Kamlesh Bahl affair, I am told, will cost more than 1 million; I expect there will be more shocks in store when the final figures are known.

I told the Council in January that I considered the matter was being badly handled.

I remain of that view.You will be told that the Council needs reform.

I have said that for years but at the end of the day, it is the Council members who make those reforms workable or unworkable.

There is too much bickering.

I recognise what is achievable.

For example, over the years, I have advocated wider rights of audience for solicitors; that is now a reality.

Pressure, continuous pressure, should be applied for more solicitors to be appointed to the bench, and not just those with advocacy experience.A glance at the election addresses of some of the candidates over the years makes interesting reading.

I cannot claim to be a Law Society 'worthy' who has chaired this or that committee.

I have not written any learned tome.

I do not represent the big battalions.

I do have common sense and the ability to know what is achievable.

It is for that reason that I ask for your vote.David Savage is Council member for Berkshire and North Hampshire