I really am not the only one. Thank God!

A friend of mine who qualified at the same time as me recently told me that they were thinking of leaving the profession. A little digging around found that just under a half of my cohort of solicitors are also thinking the same. I recently sat in a car with a colleague and we discussed the relative merits and demerits of becoming a plasterer as opposed to a carpenter.

At this point, you'll be expecting a moan about legal aid and how the cuts are biting, how we cannot cope with the low pay and the long hours. Moan. Moan. Moan.

However, I didn't speak to a single legal aid solicitor. About 80% work of those chatted to work in the 'commercial' arena - corporate commercial, commercial property and employment (and a number of other variants). The others are family solicitors. None of us are particularly badly paid (although a few noted that a MacDonald's manager gets the same) and none of us are working in battery farms. They are all eloquent, personable, sensible people. And they want to leave.

Why?

The awful changing legal environment was part of it. Tinkering politicians are stiffling businesses more effectively than any free market competitor could ever do.

The removal of any sort of prestige from the job. The form filling. The arse covering. The admin - oh my, the admin, almost all of it pointless. A couple of them said pay, I can't deny. The lack of respect. The pressure and stress. And a sudden realisation that 'there really must be more to life than this'.

When I finished my formal study, one of my compatriots went off to do the two year training contract. He left 2 weeks before the end thus ending his chances of admission. I thought he was mad. I told him so. Actually, amongst a clever bunch, he might actually have been the cleverest (he is currently studying for a PhD, so he probably is the cleverest but that's not the point!).

The profession is going through a lot of changes and soon others will be allowed to do our work. Good luck to them, I say. Good luck to anyone that wants a go. Good luck also to the clients who go for the cheaper option.

The way things are going, it might be the only option open to them. The rest of us might well be running the local McDonald's by then - it'd probably be more enjoyable.

We're all becoming very beige...

Last Sunday something shocking happened in the UK. Three men took out pipes, pipes that you use for smoking, and lit them up. Actually, two of them lit them up. One of those two put the pipe in his mouth the wrong way round. The other one smoked it.

Now, not only was this disgusting behaviour done in public, it was also done on TV.

Spare a thought for the one of the three who did not smoke. He is probably having counselling as we speak. Spare a thought also for the small handful of people who bothered to write to the BBC to complain and those who took it on themselves to report the BBC to the local council.

Actually, spare those last two sets of people lots of thoughts. They need them. They could probably also do with a bit of counselling.

The programme was Top Gear so it should not have been a shock to anybody. The crowd laughed and didn't seem to care (even Jesus, who was in the audience - Jeremy Clarkson pointed Him out). But, no doubt, an investigation will now be started, reports written, the BBC Trust will put out a statement, yadda, yadda, yadda. All in the week when the Beeb had to tell their employees that over 2000 of them would be sacked as a cost saving measure.

We know that they broke the law but, in the circumstances, does it really matter? They were in a massive warehouse that where there was plenty of free flowing air, nobody has been hurt.

Now, I don't smoke but I'm not really bothered if other people do. I'd prefer it not to be in my face but if they really want to, I'll either say something or say nothing or move. I'm not going to go to the local council. If you are so appalled at the sight of three men smoking on TV, get a radio (incidentally, they're all smoking on radio - it's just that you can't see them. Am I playing with your mind? Maybe. Maybe not. But you'll never be able to listen again without wondering whether you should report someone!).

The Government has banned smoking. We all know. Most people have stopped. Pubs are cleaner. Restaurants are more pleasant. Can we now just all move on? Please? Before this country becomes entirely dull and beige.

I've decided

The world needs another blog.  There simply aren't enough.  More to the point, there aren't enough written by me.  Or you for that matter.  So if you are a solicitor working in the UK and would like to join in with the moaning insightful comment on things as they are in this pseudo-world of ours, just send an email to me at solicibot@gmail.com and we'll see what we can do.

In the meantime, I need to go and retrieve my darts from that picture of Jack Straw...