Postcard from The Staterooms: 21 November 09

Dear Reader,

I can’t quite believe it is that time again… the weekend, postcard time.  I may have been watching too many programmes on quantum physics, but there does seem to be an inexorable law of physics which states that as one gets older, time speeds up. I  also noticed that it was Children In need time again.  I don’t have children so I don’t tend to spend much time (or, indeed, any) time thinking about them – but I was amused by a tweet from fellow tweeter John Kerrison last night.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is meeting with The Pope to express disappointment at the way the Catholic church is welcoming all his members, tolerant men and women to a tee, who don’t care much for homosexuals or women bishops. Being a confirmed atheist, I do not spend any time, usually, reading about religious news – although if and when The Messiah does return I’m sure that it will be covered by Newsnight, so I’ll make an exception.  Machinations, on the other hand, in religion as much as other walks of life… fascinate me.  The Pope is welcoming disenchanted Anglicans into the Catholic fold and is bending the rules to allow them to be married and carry on their own ‘practices’… and appears to be enjoying himself in so doing. I suppose it is the equivalent of a ratings war between television companies or market share war between gas and electricity suppliers.  I wonder if I will get a phone call from some call centre asking me if I would like to change my religion and get a better chance of life ever after?

800 years of history swept away

Frances Gibb, legal editor of The Times, reports: ” Barristers will be free to set up in partnership with solicitors or with each other under historic reforms approved last night by the Bar Standards Board. The landmark decision was taken at a packed public meeting of the Board along with a series of other changes that ditch 800 years of working practices in the profession. The Board, chaired by Baroness Ruth Deech, agreed in principle that barristers could be permitted to join in partnerships with solicitors and others without having to qualify first as solicitors, under the regulation of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.”

Baroness Deech, who appears to be everywhere these days said… and I just love this statement which I suspect will have some barristers reviving their interest in Anglo-Saxon epithets… “”I do think it will send a shot of adrenalin through the profession and hopefully it will revive and pick up without losing the benefits [of its traditional working methods and core principles].”

I had no idea the Bar was so stricken across the range of practice – which, of course, it isn’t. It will be interesting to see how The Bar responds.  Being a rather disparate group, I suspect there will be many styles of working and, inevitably, because it will suit a section of the Bar, the current practices will be maintained. I shall have to talk to a few more barristers and see what they think  before commenting further.

I have just seen a tweet from stephenfry : I’m hoping the decision to screen anti benefit fraud ads during the darts isn’t a reflection on what the govmnt thinks of darts fans, LOL.

Given the statistical probability that there are, indeed, a fair number of potential benefit fraudsters among the dart competition watching fraternity, it is good to see the government using our money wisely. This led me to thinking about other appropriately targetted advertising.  Perhaps a public information film on burglary during The Antiques Roadshow?. A care in the community film during X-factor? The usual drunk driving message during Top Gear? That, actually, would be quite sensible given the number of petrol heads in this country. The only problem is, those with a disposition to drive while drunk are probably out drinking and driving, rather than watching TV.  Anyway… I could waste more time musing on this, but I won’t.

RollonFriday reports :“A student at Leeds university has pleaded guilty to impersonating a London barrister. ” This is not the way forward to a career in law. What was this student thinking?  Bizarre.

The Recess Monkey has a good story about a Tory complaining that “too few applicants for the Tory candidacy have “normal English names”. Given that he sent the email at nearly 1am, you wonder how often he lies awake angry at those damn foreigners with their foreign names, foreign food and foreign ways…. It appears David Cameron has now suspended Hobbins (which isn’t actually an English name and in fact is from Buckland). There is no suggestion as yet that the tens of thousands of bigots remaining the the Tory Party will face a similar fate.”

Do read the whiole story, particularly Mr Hobbins’ email. Yep… there are still fools in the Tory ship.

Well… that’s about it for this week… My plans to develop my new series ‘The Huntsman’s View are developing.  Episode 1 and Episode 2 are out… Episode 3 is being written.  Each episode, as with my West London Man series last year will have  an accompanying podcast.

Best, as ever

Charon

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