BATTLES: row over silk but accord over support for judges in face of ministerial pressure

A leading human rights silk has called for the abolition of the Crown-appointed quality mark of Queen's Counsel, but the barristers' governing body staunchly defended the rank at this year's Bar Council conference.

Rabinder Singh QC told a workshop at last weekend's London conference called 'Jobs for the Boys?': 'I am opposed to the QC system, I believe it should and will go.

Whether it is replaced depends on whether what replaces it will be in the public interest.'

Speaking at a press briefing the chairman of the bar, Matthias Kelly QC, said he continued to believe in the silk system.

He said the system for appointing silks should be transparent, but it must continue to be awarded for advocacy skills rather than becoming an automatic badge for senior service.

Courtenay Griffiths QC, the chairman of the bar's public affairs committee, said: 'There may be some resentment among solicitors about the QC system.

But one of the things that concerns me is that just at that time when a cohort of ethnic minority barristers are coming close to the time when they would take silk, the rug is being pulled away from under their feet.'

Mr Singh also called for more diversity in judicial appointments.

He said: 'When the first woman was appointed to the High Court bench in the mid-1960s we were told trickle up would work; it clearly hasn't.

As long as we have a system in which High Court appointments are made almost universally from men who have been at the bar and taken silk, you narrow the pool you are fishing from.'

Mr Singh said: 'Positive steps should be taken - but not positive discrimination - to widen the pool from which appointees come.'

Stephen Irwin QC, the Bar Council's vice-chairman, said: 'We must keep judicial appointments clear of political interference.'

Meanwhile, Mr Griffiths said the bar should defend the judiciary from the executive.

He added: 'When the home secretary, David Blunkett, blames judges for the asylum application cases, we should be in the vanguard of those defending them, because if we don't hold the line we are staring tyranny in the face.'

Jeremy Fleming