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Joshua Rozenberg, Britain’s best-known legal commentator, takes 5 minutes out to share his views on OccupyLondon, media-friendly judges and who he most enjoys following on Twitter
If you were 21 again, and had just graduated into this harsh job market, what would your strategy be?
To take a year off; work abroad; and gain experience of something that would give me greater maturity, additional sills and, above all, make me stand out of the crowd.
What do you make of this recent quote from Times (£) columnist Matthew Parris?
“MPs have bitten journalists; journalists have bitten MPs; now judges, who hate the media, are about to bite journalists. Sooner or later comes biteback time. That the practice of law in England has for centuries been a stitch-up to enrich a professional monopoly at vast public and private expense is perfectly well known — not least by lawyers, who subliminally know that theirs is not quite a gentleman’s calling. Hence their rather desperate pomposity and self-regard. It must crack.”
He’s a good writer but he doesn’t know many judges. If he did, he couldn’t possibly think they hate the media. Many of them despair at ill-informed columnists. Where he’s right is in thinking that law is not a gentleman’s calling. But legal aid cuts mean that working-class people without wealthy parents are finding it increasingly hard to join the bar.
The Legal Services Act: over-hyped or under-hyped?
Like the French Revolution, too soon to say.
OccupyLondon : nihilistic or idealistic?
Simplistic.
Who do you most enjoy following on Twitter?
Adam Wagner (@AdamWagner1) — an excellent journalist with a day job as a barrister.
For more on Joshua, who started out as a lawyer before going into journalism, click here.