I am detecting a whiff of displeasure from my Criminal Law colleagues

[major_clanger]

Barristers tend to have a reputation for being conservative (indeed Conservative), restrained and traditionalist. It may provide some idea of just how angry the Government's cuts to legal aid and ham-fisted court 'reforms' have made the criminal bar in particular to see the Criminal Bar Association's poster for its next event:



(From original at event home page here)

Comments

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

Bloody hell. That's some pretty unambiguous design, and not in favour of peaceful acceptance.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Although, argh, gavel!

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

I think it forgivable in the circumstances. Or perhaps it is a small sledgehammer, for knocking sense into the head of the least legally-qualified Lord Chancellor in history.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Oh forgiveable, certainly. But it still makes me cringe.

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

I love it. The gavel for hammer is a brilliant piece of artistic co-option. Reminds me of the Buffy episode "Anne" in which she's fighting a bunch of capitalist exploiter demons of vulnerable workers using atone point a small sledgehammer and a sickle.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

The imagery is great. My pedantic objection is that gavels are not used in English court rooms.

[redbird]

It got the message across instantly to this viewer (though the socialist realist style probably helped too), which I think counts as good design.

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

This was also my first thought!

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

I'm also reminded of a phrase that jaylake is fond of with respect to US Republican policies: "No one likes conservative policies, when they're applied to them." or to their area of expertise. Many of these "c/Conservative" barristers have probably been quite happy overthe years with Conservative right wing policies on health and education, but they're now unhappy because similar ideas are being applied to their area.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

There may be an element of that, but the Criminal Bar has long been the least well-remunerated area of practice. Once you get past the handful of elite QCs the majority of criminal law counsel have typically had incomes that are unspectacular by the standards of other high-end professions. This article suggests that a typical annual billing for a reasonably experienced criminal barrister might be £55,000; taking into account that the taxable income will be about 3/4 of that because of expenses, such a barrister will have a taxable annual income of about £41,000. That is not a low income, but it is not spectacular. And the MoJ is proposing to cut it by around 20%, or perhaps more in some cases.