I notice you publish constant assertions that certain legal aid practitioners are 'for reasons of principle' not going to sign up to the latest complicated scheme the authorities have cooked up 'for agreement' (code for 'sign up or else').

Is it not time for reports of these references to principles by legal aid practitioners to be brought to an end? Like mine, lots of firms took the principled route years ago by getting out of legal aid altogether. We realised long ago that the whole system was a shambles perpetuated by shameful complicity in the legal profession.


How on earth anyone can claim to be looking after the interests of the oppressed while taking massive funding from the main oppressor escapes me. Anyone who wishes credibly to think of himself as an independent lawyer participating in an independent legal system cannot surely tolerate such a system.


We should be developing new ways to help the underdog that do not depend on state finance, not taking the money for the sake of a quiet life and quibbling only over trifles.


John Wilson, Wilsons, Leeds