The Government’s decision to transform the Department for Constitutional Affairs into a Ministry of Justice with additional responsibility for criminal justice and prisons provided a perfect opportunity for a sustained bout of lawyer-bashing.
Critics, among them former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, characterised the new department as The Ministry of Lawyers, as if this was proof in itself that it was a crazy idea. A BBC news correspondent quoted a minister complaining that the Government was creating one ministry to put people in prison and another, staffed by lawyers, to let them out again. Typically for this Government, a justice reform that a great many sensible people have been advocating for years has finally seen the light of day in a manner that suggests it was hastily written on the back of an envelope by a Prime Minister seeking to create a lasting legacy.
