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''The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers,'' -Dick the Butcher in ''Henry VI,'' Part II, act IV, Scene II, Line 73.

This much quoted, but misinterpreted line, was meant in the play to convey a sense of the disturbance to law and order in England, not a deep seated hatred of lawyers.

If we reflect on the large number of lawyers in prison in China for defending human rights, and past atrocities against professionals such as Katyn, we can see that lawyers generally are hated by regimes with authoritarian attributes.

It is in this light, that lawyers in the UK must assert their independence from government, so as to implement the Rule of Law fearlessly.

Any further dilution of the standing of the legal profession must be resisted, since standing back and letting it slowly decay is not an option in a modern democracy