I cannot help but comment on the relative health of the legal profession compared with the medical profession.

The medical equivalent to the Law Society is the British Medical Association (BMA). The BMA’s journal is the BMJ. On the week of 12 June, the BMJ contained 186 pages of articles and news and 72 pages of job adverts. From my perspective as a solicitor, the medical profession looks to be healthy, and indeed the BMJ seems to have increased in size over the last few months (I should say my wife is a doctor). By comparison, the Law Society Gazette for 10 June consists of a meagre 32 pages, with a handful of job adverts.

At the same time, we all face the reality that the new coalition government may well try to get rid of civil legal aid. Is the profession doing anything wrong? In my view it is – it is still perceived by the general public as being a profession that does not really act in the public interest and is not really concerned with the public good. Thus we are easy targets for the ‘fat cat’ response of the last government. In comparison, the medical profession is seen as acting in the public good.

We all seem to be sleepwalking into a situation where our precious legal aid system, part of the post-world war two creation of the welfare state, is abolished with hardly a murmur from the general public. The profession needs to wake up.

Phil Shiner, Public Interest Lawyers, Birmingham