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I do not take issue with the argument that our profession requires rationalization and re-structuring, but the question for all in private practice to ask themselves is whether they will have a significant influence on these issues or whether they surrender their independence and authority to the whims of short-term government policy & big business profits.

When the government crushed the miners under Mrs. Thatcher, Arthur Scargill predicted not just the neutering of the NUM, but of the Trade Union movement. His political views did not appeal to me, but his foresight was borne out by events. The Trade Union movement is a hollow shadow of its former self.

If lawyers lose their independence it will not be just the criminal justice system that loses its legitimacy in the eyes of its users, but our system of legal process, before society generally.

Our leaders in the Law Society and the Bar Council, need to face up to the challenges and lead us, either to retain our independence and the integrity of our legal system, or by passivity and appeasement, continue to sleepwalk our profession into oblivion