I refer to the government's recently published White Paper and the minister's apparent belief that the delivery of legal services should be no more difficult than buying a can of baked beans (see [2005] Gazette, 20 October, 1).


At a time when MPs are highly critical of the anti-competitive tendencies of the big superstores, the government seems determined to weaken the ethical framework within which the public receives its legal services.


Since coming to power, the government has engaged in several attacks on the profession and has been encouraged to so in part by the Law Society's inability to observe its own mission statement, which was adopted by its council in December 2001. The statement guaranteed 'the vigorous promotion of solicitors' interests'.


The Law Society's failure successfully to counter government spin has meant that a once proud profession is increasingly perceived as a soft target, which can be slowly emasculated. Where is, for instance, the publicity to highlight the critical roles played by solicitors in protecting the vulnerable, or in the export of invisible earnings, which forms a significant part of the UK's gross domestic product?


It is a matter of deep concern that the Law Society has shown an uncaring willingness to disengage from many of its own members in the high street, and at a critical time in its history. It is an attitude that does not bode well for the survival of the Law Society as a representative body in the post-Clementi era.


SJ Larcombe, Limbach Banham, Royston, Hertfordshire