*/
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.
I have been thinking this summer about living through momentous events. When do inchoate fears about the future turn into knowledge as to what is happening? Did it happen before, during or after great events of the past? Does the mind become overwhelmed with these events, or the threat of them? Can we see the true significance only much later?
Some years ago, I was having coffee in the public canteen of a court with a psychiatrist I was about to call in a criminal trial. Dr Sackville-Pope and I were chatting when I mentioned the very steep increase in sentences in recent years to placate public concern about offending and in the hope of deterring offenders.
She suddenly moved her head backwards and performed a sort of ‘thinking’ mime. ‘You know,’ she said, ‘it is completely pointless as a deterrent because the human mind cannot conceive of the passing of time unless the period is very small. So, say 12 years instead of eight. The mind computes the difference but does not feel it in the way it would when you are hearing from someone that you have to wait for something for an hour.’
I suspect it is the same with the energy crisis: trying to see it across the board with all its effects and ramifications is near-impossible. Likewise, the disaster of the whole criminal justice system from pay, through conditions, to the actual court estate: it is simply overwhelming. We are witnessing an appreciable increase in impulsive, random and often utterly pointless crimes. Is it that the mind, being asked to absorb overwhelming problems on many fronts, simply fuses and breaks down the mental protection normally ensuring we do not consider too realistically our place in the universe and the meaning of life?
The Criminal Bar is facing its own extinction crisis and giving its own cry of pain. We should, of all people, care about words and I confess I do not like the buzzword ‘strike’. We are not employees and we have no employer – yet. It is in fact more serious than a strike and nearer to a rebellion, following the deepest provocation.
I understand what has driven particularly the young Bar to take the unprecedented step of refusing in large numbers to comply with agreements previously entered into to represent criminal clients at court or to take on new ones, because of what has happened to their fees. There is no realistic career path for them now, despite the importance of the work and their lengthy training with many early sacrifices.
We see war on the continent of Europe, breakdown of the planet’s eco-system, the plight of the dispossessed – physically, politically or economically – and a concomitant rise in intolerance and violence. The Criminal Bar’s action, well understood by commentators, has challenges beyond the simply political. A rise in fees of 25% still leaves the young Bar out of pocket given past cuts and it must be examined in a context where its spending power will be hugely reduced by expected rises of inflation in the 20% plus region annually without any index linking or annual pay review. The biggest problem, however, is whether any government can take on board the issue properly, given the tsunami of problems it faces.
This is why you see footage of two laughing and smiling people going round the country enveloped in a bubble of Disney-like escapism, each vying to become the next Prime Minister. I will make no comment as to their respective merits. The Bar has already had direct and unhappy experience of one of them. In essence, it is a vote by a tiny ‘selectorate’ with the same air of unreality that causes me to escape by watching old episodes of the 1950s ‘Robin Hood’.
I wish both well. I suspect their minds, too, have already fused and they are totally incapable of comprehending what is unfolding before all of our eyes and, more importantly, what to do about it. I wonder if, like diarists who reflected on the cause of the French Revolution and other great historical events, mine will be read by future generations, if there are any, or is that another displacement thought?
One thing I do believe, however, was succinctly expressed recently by Paddy Corkhill – colleague and friend – over a suitably cheap Burgundy. He said: ‘There must be something badly wrong with both of them. Not only are they both putting themselves up to be Prime Minister. Each is actually fighting the other to do it.’
William Byfield is the pseudonym of a senior member of the Bar. Gutteridge Chambers, and the events that happen there, are entirely fictitious.
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.
I have been thinking this summer about living through momentous events. When do inchoate fears about the future turn into knowledge as to what is happening? Did it happen before, during or after great events of the past? Does the mind become overwhelmed with these events, or the threat of them? Can we see the true significance only much later?
Some years ago, I was having coffee in the public canteen of a court with a psychiatrist I was about to call in a criminal trial. Dr Sackville-Pope and I were chatting when I mentioned the very steep increase in sentences in recent years to placate public concern about offending and in the hope of deterring offenders.
She suddenly moved her head backwards and performed a sort of ‘thinking’ mime. ‘You know,’ she said, ‘it is completely pointless as a deterrent because the human mind cannot conceive of the passing of time unless the period is very small. So, say 12 years instead of eight. The mind computes the difference but does not feel it in the way it would when you are hearing from someone that you have to wait for something for an hour.’
I suspect it is the same with the energy crisis: trying to see it across the board with all its effects and ramifications is near-impossible. Likewise, the disaster of the whole criminal justice system from pay, through conditions, to the actual court estate: it is simply overwhelming. We are witnessing an appreciable increase in impulsive, random and often utterly pointless crimes. Is it that the mind, being asked to absorb overwhelming problems on many fronts, simply fuses and breaks down the mental protection normally ensuring we do not consider too realistically our place in the universe and the meaning of life?
The Criminal Bar is facing its own extinction crisis and giving its own cry of pain. We should, of all people, care about words and I confess I do not like the buzzword ‘strike’. We are not employees and we have no employer – yet. It is in fact more serious than a strike and nearer to a rebellion, following the deepest provocation.
I understand what has driven particularly the young Bar to take the unprecedented step of refusing in large numbers to comply with agreements previously entered into to represent criminal clients at court or to take on new ones, because of what has happened to their fees. There is no realistic career path for them now, despite the importance of the work and their lengthy training with many early sacrifices.
We see war on the continent of Europe, breakdown of the planet’s eco-system, the plight of the dispossessed – physically, politically or economically – and a concomitant rise in intolerance and violence. The Criminal Bar’s action, well understood by commentators, has challenges beyond the simply political. A rise in fees of 25% still leaves the young Bar out of pocket given past cuts and it must be examined in a context where its spending power will be hugely reduced by expected rises of inflation in the 20% plus region annually without any index linking or annual pay review. The biggest problem, however, is whether any government can take on board the issue properly, given the tsunami of problems it faces.
This is why you see footage of two laughing and smiling people going round the country enveloped in a bubble of Disney-like escapism, each vying to become the next Prime Minister. I will make no comment as to their respective merits. The Bar has already had direct and unhappy experience of one of them. In essence, it is a vote by a tiny ‘selectorate’ with the same air of unreality that causes me to escape by watching old episodes of the 1950s ‘Robin Hood’.
I wish both well. I suspect their minds, too, have already fused and they are totally incapable of comprehending what is unfolding before all of our eyes and, more importantly, what to do about it. I wonder if, like diarists who reflected on the cause of the French Revolution and other great historical events, mine will be read by future generations, if there are any, or is that another displacement thought?
One thing I do believe, however, was succinctly expressed recently by Paddy Corkhill – colleague and friend – over a suitably cheap Burgundy. He said: ‘There must be something badly wrong with both of them. Not only are they both putting themselves up to be Prime Minister. Each is actually fighting the other to do it.’
The Bar Council will press for investment in justice at party conferences, the Chancellor’s Budget and Spending Review
Equip yourself for your new career at the Bar
Louise Crush of Westgate Wealth explores some key steps to take when starting out as a barrister in order to secure your financial future
Millicent Wild of 5 Essex Chambers describes her pupillage experience
Drug, alcohol and DNA testing laboratory AlphaBiolabs has made a £500 donation to Juno Women’s Aid in Nottingham as part of its Giving Back campaign
Casedo explains how to hit the ground running on your next case with a four-step plan to transform the way you work
An epic failure of public policy has filled our crumbling prisons to capacity, says Lord Ken Macdonald KC. How did we get here, and what might reform look like?
Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice since January 2021, is well known for his passion for access to justice and all things digital. Perhaps less widely known is the driven personality and wanderlust that lies behind this, as Anthony Inglese CB discovers
Stephen Mason sets out how the legal presumption, which exposed widespread misunderstanding about the nature of computer failures and caused serious widespread injustice, came into effect
Jasvir Singh trails this summer’s celebrations, open to all and with the theme ‘Free to Be Me’, by focusing on the diversity of South Asian heritage barristers and judges, and the trailblazers who led the way
Art, including music, should be protected as a fundamental form of freedom of expression and not used to unfairly implicate individuals, argues Ifẹ Thompson
