Dear Reader,
In the latest edition of Carter Ruck’s originally named Newsletter they refer to the fact on page 4 that they are acting for a number of lawyers who are on the Solicitors From Hell website. Private Eye, obligingly, informs us that Carter-Ruck are on the Solicitors From Hell website as “Premium Players’.
And so it came to pass after much measured judgment by the twitterati (and some outraged knee jerking) on the story that Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, was to be prosecuted for rape… that he isn’t wanted for rape after all. Quelle surprise.
I may have mentioned it before – and I accept that my irritation with Toby Young is, probably, irrational, but I find him irritating in the extreme. He pops up all over the place, pulling various faces from smug to concerned to imperial, pronounces on a fair few matters he knows (or appears to know) little about and then manages to look even more smug. It would not surprise me if he has mirrors in every room of his house. I did, therefore, enjoy reading in Private Eye this afternoon…
THE HISTORY BOYS
TOBY YOUNG was in fine form as he launched into an attack on George Orwell’s essay The Lion and The Unicorn, a mere 69 years after it was first published, in 7 Augusts’ Spectator.
In the essay, written soon after The Battle of Britain, Orwell suggests that the incompetence of the British ruling class was hindering the war effort. An affronted Young lays into Orwell, writing of the Battle of Britain: “The young men risking their lives to protect Orwell….were nearly all public schoolboys”. Later, he become overwhelmed with emotion: “It’s worth remembering that the few whom we owe so much to were all members of Britain’s ‘clapped out’ ruling class.”
Except, of course, they weren’t. Some 70 per cent of them were state educated. Only about 200 of the 3000 pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain had been to a public school, and only 4.6 percent were educated at the top 13 public schools. Even Churchill himself complained about the “almost entire failure of Eton, harrow and Winchester to contribute pilots”. A fifth of the pilots were foreigners.
I don’t usually extract entire sections – and I do hope the Eye doesn’t mind on this occasion – but apart from it being an excellent piece – it does tend to confirm (for me, at least) why I find Mr Young irritating. Blue Nun of us are infallible. But at least we don’t appear on television at every opportunity to pontificate and, one assumes, get paid for doing so. If Sky, Channel 5, Dave, QVC Channel want to contact me… I can knee jerk with the best of ’em… for a very large fee. For the Beeb and C4… I’d even do my best to talk sense… for FREE. Unfortunately, I am now a recluse and will only appear on national television if I am allowed to wear a burqa.
I am happy to draw my readers’ attention to a NEW book for lawyers: THE NAKED LAWYER. Truth can be stranger than fiction sometimes…and this is in the very finest traditions of legal marketing. I am sure that Dr Strangelove of Muttley Dastardly LLP will be getting in touch. I have read the extract… I particularly liked the threat contained on page 2 of the extract…
Unauthorised duplication of this material in any form is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
But… helpfully….. The Entrepreneurial Lawyer does cover herself – although, strangely, her pdf would not allow me to copy her words, so I used *GRAB* instead….
Anyway… if you are a lawyer who needs advice and are happy to subscribe to the full 12 volume set to get the revelation and wisdom of The Naked Lawyer… then here is the link.
I am looking forward to the start of the new legal year, or at least, some vaguely sensible law to write about. Not a lot of law about. There are, however, stories about crocodiles in the English Channel and beaches being shut – only to find that the crocodile was a tree trunk. Last year The Sun had Great White sharks off the coast of Cornwall with useful photographs of Great Whites in South Africa. I am able to report, following revelations in The Sun this week that 2-3ft long rats (with pics) are being found all over Britain (compounded by The Daily Mail which reckons there are 60 million of them), that the news desk at The Sun is almost certainly now being manned by a seven foot long rat, wearing a homburg with a *PRESS* card stuck into the band, having a larf.
On that note… do have a good weekend
Best, as always
Charon
i think i may have worked out why you find toby young annoying.
it’s cos he’s annoying.
simples.
Toby Young likes to annoy people. Don’t let him win.
He won’t with me! Be sure…. 🙂
he was born to it!