Why did I bother to turn the radio on?

I posted this link on the thread about Raab being acting PM for the day while Johnson is in hospital but worth posting here too. LBC clip dated 22 Mar 2019 near the bottom of the page:

www.indy100.com/news/things-dominic-raab-has-said-quotes-queen-take-the-knee-tory-austerity-9452561

Clip opens with Raab saying.

My name is Dominic Raab. I am a Tory. I don’t support the Human Rights Act and I don’t believe in economic and social rights.

And we wonder why legal aid is being underfunded. There's the answer.

Germanshepherdsmum

That’s right Molly. I am amazed that any qualified lawyer is willing to work on legal aid rates. And of course many work pro bono - for free - in cases where legal aid isn’t available.

Everyone should read the Secret Barrister books! The way our criminal justice system has been slashed to the bone by the 'party of Law and Order' is ...um... criminal..

Imagine being a victim of a crime like rape, or domestic abuse and having to wait perhaps 4 years for the case to come to court with your rapist or abuser completely at large during that period.

Mollygo

DiamondLily

I think the barristers are striking around cuts to legal aid funding.

I thought one thing no change would mean is to make it more difficult to bring domestic abuse cases to court . . . but I could be wrong.

It seems that it is difficult to bring any criminal cases to court in a timely manner.

Except, of course, high profile political cases, like the Extinction Rebellion activists, or the Sarah Everard vigil cases, or those protestors who sent the Colson statue for a bath...

That’s right Molly. I am amazed that any qualified lawyer is willing to work on legal aid rates. And of course many work pro bono - for free - in cases where legal aid isn’t available.

DiamondLily

I think the barristers are striking around cuts to legal aid funding.

I thought one thing no change would mean is to make it more difficult to bring domestic abuse cases to court . . . but I could be wrong.

WRT barristers, I'm a great fan of The Secret Barrister and have read all of their books. SB is a criminal barrister; in one book they detail just how legal aid money 'works', who gets it and how much preparation work is entailed in defending a suspect on legal aid. When the hours they work are totted up, the legal aid is worth something like the minimum wage, or less.

Because of government cuts the criminal law system is on its knees; shortage of staff prevents the actual, physical law courts from opening, it also can mean trials cancelled at short notice, and there are huge time gaps between charges being brought and court cases being heard. It could be a number of years.

I believe that barristers practising in civil law work under different conditions. They are the ones who have the eyewatering charges; mostly because a great many of their clients can afford to pay.

I think the barristers are striking around cuts to legal aid funding.

From this POV I’m rather glad dh is away for another 3 weeks. He tends to have some sort of news on non-stop - but at home I can usually escape it. I do mostly keep up with a quick flick through the daily paper, and the BBC website, but I really don’t want to be bombarded with depressing-ness all day long.

It’s particularly bad in the car with dh when he wants the news yet again, or R4 PM - there’s no escape!

I often have Classic FM on but frequently switch off when the news comes on, but then I do that for some of the more irritating ads (most of them TBH) too.

?

Phew!

That’s my understanding too volver.

Germanshepherdsmum

Not everyone is free to strike.

The only professions legally banned from striking in the UK are police officers and prison officers. Other professions have reached agreements with government about striking, but they are not limited by law.

I know I will be on shaky ground discussing this with GSM because I'm sure she knows a lot more about it that me. But that's the case.

I agree.
Strikes, petrol and food prices, Ukraine, Protocol, and more...
It's all very depressing.
My OH is listening with ear phones. I don't want to hear.
My daughter has rebooked twice to come to visit.
I do hope she makes it.

DaisyAnne

Oh dear. With one exception, I would guess "knowledge" gained from Daily Mail level information.

Best just let people get it out of their system I think.

Radio4 news actually.
But that aside why do you dismiss what I said as Daily Mail level information?
Apart from the fact I don’t read the DM how superior does it make you feel to be so patronising?
The quotation is from George Santayana via Churchill . As Santayana didn’t write for the DM you may not have heard of him
I believe that in its original form it read, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Santayana was known for aphorisms, and for being a professor in philosophy at Harvard.
So instead of dismissing anything you don’t like as a product of the “popular” press, think about what happened in the 70’s as just one example of strikes/pay rises /galloping inflation.

Not everyone is free to strike.

Point of order.

The Criminal Bar Association’s strike is in protest at the 15 per cent increase in the legal aid budget which it claims is inadequate. They are demanding a minimum of 25 per cent.

Some barristers may be well paid but a cut in the legal aid budget means they have to work for less or take on fewer legal aid cases.

Irrespective of what someone earns, I see it as a point of principle regarding underfunded public services. Underfunding should not result in the working people who provide those public services having to work for less, whatever their profession, especially now, when the cost of living is going through the roof. The alternative is a reduction in public services which means that fewer people who are entitled to help with legal costs will be able to get it.

I don’t see it as any different to, say, expecting medical professions to have to work for less to compensate for an underfunded NHS. In 2015, Jeremy Hunt fell foul of junior doctors when he tried to impose new contracts which unions claimed would result in an increase in working hours with a relative pay cut of up to 40%. Similar principle here I think.

The problem isn’t the strikers it’s about why they feel the need to strike.
Sometimes it’s the only way to be taken seriously and listened to.
Thank goodness people still have the freedom to strike in this country, after following due process of course.

Let's not make assumptions about barristers.

The CBA says many of its members are being forced to leave the criminal bar after a fall in incomes of nearly 30 per cent over the last two decades. It says specialist criminal barristers make an average annual income after expenses of £12,200 in the first three years of practice.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/barristers-strike-legal-aid-cba-b2104962.html

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Strikes are not always about pay.

“ Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

MawTheMerrier- yes it's obvious . Probably too obvious. We've been here before. It didn't end well.

Oh I am sure they are hard up (not) - I’m forever tripping over them on the pavement asking if I have any spare change.
But seriously, everybody is quoting the increase in the cost of living but not drawing what (to me) is the obvious connection
Higher prices ▶️
Wage demands ▶️
Higher wages ▶️
More money in circulation ▶️
▶️Higher prices
Oh, how did we get here?

Very depressing isn’t it I was a bit incrudlous at the barrister strikes ??