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A call to arms

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20 June 2013 / Jon Robins
Issue: 7565 / Categories: Opinion , Legal services
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Will the government listen to legal campaigners' protests, asks Jon Robins

“I dreamt of the day when the justice department would be surrounded by lawyers demanding justice,” quipped Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour MP for Islington North at this month’s rally outside the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

Who would have thought it, but it turns out that lawyers can put on a very rowdy and effective demo. Hundreds of campaigners crowded into the street outside the MoJ’s Petty France HQ, celebrated for its brutalist architecture, in opposition to the seemingly endless stream of brutal and mindless legal aid policy emanating from inside.

Rallying cries

Beleaguered defence lawyers rubbed shoulders with well-heeled QCs and anti-cuts protestors with their Socialist Worker placards, all enthusiastically joining in the chanting (“Shame on you, Chris Grayling”, “Stop the raid on legal aid”, “No legal aid, no justice” etc).

“This is the last stand,” Kat Craig, solicitor and legal director of the human rights group Reprieve told the crowd. She exhorted lawyers to take industrial action. “If not

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