I am so grateful that Sir David Clementi has chosen to suggest driving solicitors off the high street and abolishing the right to self-regulation (see [2004] Gazette, 11 March, 1).

The financial services industry and the banking and insurance industries are, after all, exemplary acts to follow.

Now I can work within a commission-driven culture with insufficient duty of care to my clients and make billions into the bargain out of selling poor- quality financial products my clients don't need.

The only problem is, I suppose, that competition - as any small firm trying to get deeds from a building society or a legal expenses insurance policy that isn't designed to indemnify, to pay out, will tell you - only goes one way.

Peter Balchin, Alistairs, Hanham, Bristol