Legal aid cuts keep the asylum bandwagon rolling

The big story last week was the government's attempts to cut the legal aid bill.

The media's take on it? 'Free legal advice for asylum seekers to be cut to five hours' (Daily Telegraph), 'Curbs proposed on aid in asylum cases' (Guardian), 'Asylum lawyers face 150 million blitz' (Daily Star) and 'Legal aid cuts set to halve asylum seekers' access to lawyers' (Financial Times).

Pretty much all the national papers jumped on the asylum bandwagon, with The Times one of the few to lead with another angle, reporting that 'drink-driving suspects taken into police custody for blood or urine tests would no longer receive free legal advice'.

It went on to point out that 'legal aid could also be cut for suspects held for fingerprinting and for people who seek legal advice in less serious court cases', before, inevitably, going on to say that 'legal aid for asylum seekers would also be limited'.

The Daily Express, keen to out-Mail the Mail, splashed with 'Britain faces new flood of immigrants', a Home Office report which apparently warns of a Biblical deluge of eastern European immigrants, drawn by our 'higher wages, better living standards' and - of course - 'our solicitors milking the 1.9 billion a year taxpayer-funded legal aid system'.

The Daily Mail decided to take a break from its asylum hobby-horse to focus on another of its pet hates: Lord Chancellor Derry Irvine.

The 'booming', 'vast' and 'soaring' legal aid bill 'marks a humiliating defeat for Lord Irvine, who launched a campaign to slash the cost of legal aid after his appointment as Lord Chancellor in 1997' (6 June).

Also happily having a dig at 'Donkey Derry' was The Sun, which reported that 'Tony Blair's pal' - now routinely branded an ass by the paper for supposedly saying burglars should not be jailed - 'could quit as early as next week', owing to the mooted replacement of the 'outdated' Lord Chancellor's Department with a new Ministry of Justice (6 June).

The Daily Express also shed few tears as it reported that 'the Lord Chancellor may have done himself out of a job', and happily raked over the spectres of 'humbly born' Derry Irvine's 'self-importance' and 'colourful' personal life (4 June).

One characteristic that even his detractors grudgingly admit the Lord Chancellor has in spades is cleverness - not something, sadly, that could necessarily be said about the team of City lawyers who achieved a 'near-record low score on the BBC's University Challenge' (London Evening Standard, 3 June).

Four solicitors from Addleshaw Goddard, who 'can earn up to 350,000 per year', were given a 'mauling' on the show by a team of vicars, who scored 180 points to the lawyers' paltry 55.

The team, headed by David Engel, achieved the lowest score of the current series, and cheerfully admitted that to qualify, 'we beat a crack team of lawyers from London's top firms' only 'to be slaughtered by a bunch of vicars'.

Still, as Jeremy Paxman acerbically noted at the end of the show, it should not do their earning power any harm.

Victoria MacCallum