How soon we forget

Bruce Houlder QC, chairman of the public affairs committee of the Bar Council, is quoted recently as saying: 'To be really good at advocacy, you need to do it all the time, and solicitor-advocates don't' (see [2000] Gazette, 31 August, 33).

I must praise the capacity of barristers not to let any personal experience fetter the objectivity of their world view.

DPP v Morgans, 17 February 2000, heralded the first victory for a solicitor-advocate in the House of Lords.

My opponent? Answer: Bruce Houlder QC.

Yours with reluctant but necessary immodesty.

Lionel Blackman, Lionel Blackman Solicitors, Epsom, Surrey