The last month has been about a single issue for me.
There may or may not be some value in a more detailed evaluation of the 2015 Duty Bid round but now is not that time.
First I want to say what a genuine pleasure it has been assisting highly such committed people doing their level best to be able continue with their vocation. The casual glance we have given to the cynical financial disclosure required was enough to show that bidders were not a hungry pack of “fat cat lawyers”, after the main chance; we know that is an MoJ myth and neither are these contracts the boon they have been spun. Most tellingly we only once came close to dealing with one “expansion capacity bid”, that was because the firm only made about a third of the anticipated contract value in their own bid zone.
It was such an over complicated and time consuming process that one can perhaps only rationalise it as a final punitive act of the hopefully departed, Lord Chancellor.
I became totally cocooned in the process learning, for instance, about the royal baby from a client and the last test score 2 days late. I have therefore no idea what has been going on in the election. This however has now become a single-issue election for me. Before I say what you know is coming, let me remind you of the countless times I have praised tory peer Lord Mackay of Clashfern as the best Legal Aid LC of our generation. Whilst Grayling is obviously the worst there are plenty in between who have hardly shone.
I repeat, this is now a single-issue election for me – the future of justice. Impoverished though it is at least the Labour manifesto pledges to make all of our recent efforts redundant and do away with this disastrous nonsense. Anyone with an ounce of commitment to equality of access to justice has a plain choice. More prosaically even if you work for or just know someone connected to a legal aid firm – it is straightforward. Put aside your previous allegiances and vote Labour tomorrow. Then we must prepare to hold them to that promise and start work on forcing the repeal of LASPO.
That was a Party Election Broadcast on behalf of the Access to Justice Party.
