Westminster Watch

Winter of Discontent? Toby Craig looks at what the year ahead holds both for the country and for the Bar  

As the strains of Auld Lang Syne fade gently away, the stoppers on the sherry decanters are replaced for another year and the festive decorations are restored to the attic, we should all now be rested, rejuvenated and ready to greet 2013. And what a year it promises to be. We may not have a home Olympics to look forward to, or a big election, or even a Jubilee, but there will be plenty to fill these pages in the coming months. 

As 2012 comes to a close, Toby Craig and Charles Hale look back at the high (and low) lights for Counsel  

A year to remember
At the beginning of the year, 2012 seemed full of promise. A London Mayoral election, a Presidential race, the final stages of LASPO lobbying, the Coalition Government still finding its feet, the Diamond Jubilee and of course, the London Olympics. With so much to play for, would it, could it, ever live up to all the hype..? It’s rarely good form to answer a question with a question, but how could you ever have doubted it? This was a year to live long in the memory. The changes have been seismic, the glories have been historic and the lows may leave a legacy more lasting than the regeneration of East London. 

Toby Craig and Charles Hale review this year’s party conference season for Counsel 

Life imitating art
Returning to our screens to satirise life in Coalition, The Thick of It  has long sought to shine a light on some of the more ridiculous elements of party politics. Its success lies, in part, in the extreme caricatures it adopts. Real life couldn’t possibly be that bad. And that must have been on the writers’ minds when they thought up an episode in which the fictional Lib Dem team agreed to launch a ‘Community Bank’, requiring a mere £2bn of public funds, to the horror of their Coalition partners. So imagine their glee when that episode was broadcast in the same week as Vince Cable took to the Lib Dem conference stage to announce...a state bank requiring £1bn of public funds and extensive Government guarantees. Apparently you could make it up. And there was still time to bring back the spectre of a Mansion Tax, which lasted all of a few days before the Conservatives ruled it out. 

Toby Craig and Charles Hale analyse the recent reshuffle and its implications for the Bar 

Shuffling the deck

Cecil Parkinson once observed, probably with a fair degree of personal experience in mind, that “in politics, you get what you deserve, rather than what you want”. Both, it must be said, are relative concepts. But when David Cameron finally undertook his first major reshuffle, two and a half years into the Coalition Government, the conflict between desire and desert would have struck a number of disappointed Parliamentarians. The problem for many MPs is an inability to distinguish between what they want and what they deserve. Politics is necessarily a fairly ego-driven business and never more so than when a reshuffle comes around. 

Toby Craig and Charles Hale reflect on this most golden of British summers and hand out the notice-box medals 

And the winner is...

This summer will be remembered for so many years to come. Normally silly season, there were no concerns this year about being able to fill column inches. The newspapers, magazines, blogs and tweets virtually wrote themselves. 

Charles Hale and Toby Craig provide a round-up of Government debate and initiatives affecting the Bar Olympic Spirit 

It finally happened, the Olympics came to London once again. Winners and losers, heartbreak and joy, but whatever the individual outcomes the Olympic spirit continues to shine. Preparation, dedication, playing by the rules and above all else, fairness are the qualities expected of an Olympic athlete. Many would say they are the same qualities expected every day of members of the Bar, and not just every four years. The Bar has played its part in the Olympics too. A dedicated team of on-call barristers working pro bono via Sports Resolutions, the sporting dispute service, has been available throughout both Olympics to ensure fair representation of those caught up in disputes. A great example again of the Bar expanding its influence and work.   

A busy week, but now at least we all know how to chillax. Toby Craig and Charles Hale examine Coalition ideology, the state of the Union and judicial power 

Dave says Chillax

Sitting down after Sunday lunch and a few glasses of wine to write WW is enough to make anyone feel Prime Ministerial. Or suitably chillaxed at any rate, as the kids would (probably never) say.   Yes, we now know how our trusty leader likes to unwind. Though hardly revelatory, it did set WW to thinking of previous inhabitants of Number 10. Whether Macmillan’s appetite for Trollope, Ted Heath’s penchant for the conductor’s baton or John Major’s love of leather on willow, there is a strong tradition of premiers finding suitable ways to unwind from an extremely stressful role. If Dave favours a good claret and a tennis session then who are we to object, providing he keeps his eye on the ball? 

Toby Craig and Charles Hale reflect on the results of May’s local and mayoral elections and the plans revealed by the second Queen’s Speech of the Coalition Government  

Trials and Jubilations

And in the blink of an eye, it was all over. It’s been a busy month for the Queen, as she put quill to parchment to grant the Royal Assent to what is now the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act. That marked the end of a long and arduous lobbying process, which sadly was always to have a disappointing outcome, but with some important victories. Having been enthralled with the Bill’s progress on these pages for some months, we have nothing further to say on the topic (for now...), but you can read an excellent and extensive summary of the passage of the Bill by Harriet Deane, who worked tirelessly on the Bill on the Bar’s behalf, later on in this issue. 

Toby Craig and Charles Hale look forward to a new batch of bills, the London mayoral election and propose the launch of a parliamentary pin-up competition 

Ready to go

As Parliament enjoyed an Easter break, there was some welcome relief from the intense battles over the Legal Aid Bill. That left plenty of time for Easter Egg hunts as the bill completed its passage in the House of Lords and geared up for the “ping pong” between the Commons and the Lords, which will enable each House to consider the successful amendments and government concessions. The 11 defeats inflicted upon the government represent a substantial and important set of victories to longstanding opponents of the bill, of which the Bar Council is one of the most vocal. Lobbyists from a wide range of organisations stood ready and willing to continue making their arguments through a wide variety of communications channels, right up until the last. 

Big wins or hollow victories? Toby Craig and Charles Hale consider crunch time for LASPO 

The business end of the Bill

As the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill begins to round the bend preceding the home straight, the many months of hard lobbying by a significant and varied number of opponents to the Bill has begun to yield fruit. The Government has been left with a bloody nose after losing a succession of key votes in the House of Lords during the Bill’s Report Stage. What we don’t yet know, is whether that fruit will remain intact or wither on the vine as the Bill returns to the House of Commons, where a more effectively whipped and partisan lobby awaits.