George Carman and I: legal geniuses both
Writing his autobiography, advising the PM, and regenerating inner cities; it's been a busy week for John Fuller-Carp
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Friday
It is a great sadness that, once again, members of the Bar find themselves the subject of unwarranted public censure. To besmirch the memory of one of the greatest advocates ever to command a six figure brief fee is cruel indeed. I pondered this as I read No Ordinary Man: A Life of George Carman by his son Dominic. The book is nothing less than an act of fratricide. Carman is fast becoming an opera. Well, lest others misrepresent matters, I have decided to commence work on my own autobiography entitled, provisionally, No Ordinary Man: A Life of John Fuller-Carp. When I think about it, the parallels with Carman's career are striking. Both of us male, both favoured taxis as a means of getting to court. Am undecided on whether to devote a whole chapter to "parking offences".
Saturday
More outrageous slurs, this time from Carman's second wife. The assertion that he drew two carving knives on her and demanded "Which one do you want in you first?" is, I fear, a little emotive. While I do not condone the use of knives against defenceless women, the bald assertion ignores the very great pressures that barristers are under, and the need they have, like nurses or ambulance men, to come home and unwind.
Sunday
I am incandescent. An article in the Sunday Times is trying to make some tenuous connection between Cherie Booth QC's son Euan applying to Trinity College, Oxford, and its head, Michael Beloff QC, being Cherie's close personal friend. The absurdity of suggesting that a member of the Bar might exercise any influence in securing young Euan a place at Oxford simply beggars belief. I for one would swear on the bible that his uncle Michael would never do such a thing.
Monday
Slipped the Carman biography inside my notebook and got a couple of chapters read during a particularly tedious family case I was doing. Something about a mother wanting custody of her unwell child. Carman's son seems to posit the theory that George's propensity to consort with escorts and barmaids was indicative of some moral weakness in him as a man. I could not disagree more strongly and shall say so forcefully in my own autobiography.
Tuesday
Finally a positive news story about the Bar. It appears the lawyers at the Bloody Sunday enquiry have performed a genuine act of social justice. In charging a modest £66m or so for the inquiry thus far, they have regenerated the Londonderry economy. Local business people have seen a sharp rise in incomes since the arrival of the lawyers. Hotels and restaurants are booming, cab drivers are now looking at early retirement. Surely the Government must now see sense and adopt the most obvious of regenerative economic policies. Put simply, it involves sending a task force of highly paid lawyers into every deprived inner-city centre in the country and allowing local people to service their needs for a very, very small percentage of the lawyer's fees. It might sound like a political cliché, but I genuinely believe that the biggest winners in such a policy would be some of the most deserving people in our society. But it is essential that such an initiative should not be stifled for lack of funds. The NHS and teaching would do themselves a lot of credit by freeing up monies for such a venture. Whether the Government have the vision to take this truly radical socio-economic step, I rather doubt.
Wednesday
Wrote to 10 Downing Street this morning to suggest that the next round of the BSE thing might be held close to the deprived inner-city centre of Glasgow at, say, Gleneagles.
Thursday
Am experiencing a form of "writer's block" with my autobiography. The chapters entitled "Famous Victories" and "Grateful Clients" are coming less easily than I had anticipated. My clerk Vince suggested that I write about my famous victory at the Bar Council disciplinary proceedings, but I fear that there is little genuine public interest in my period of suspension from practice.
Friday
What efficiency. I received a reply from Downing Street. It informed me that the PM would not be able to respond to my economic initiative for some days, as he and Cherie had decided to travel to Oxford for a private dinner with Michael Beloff QC and the Trinity dons. The purpose of the dinner, it said, was to discuss how they were all going to work together to show, once and for all, that there would be no favouritism whatsoever shown to Euan Blair. It may sound a little pompous I know, but it is just so refreshing to have such transparency in public life. Finally we have a prime minister who believes that justice should not only be done, it should be seen to be done. Perhaps I'll phone him about Gleneagles. Come to think about it, maybe there's a chance they'd do Enron in Monte Carlo?
Recordings of the original radio series of 'Chambers' are available on The BBC Radio Collection