'Colonel Blimp' and 'The Life and death of Legal Aid'

I sometimes think Treasury Minister Alf Cannan - he of the military penchant - is disillusioned that he never made the SAS before exiting the service.

His attitude to the Legal profession and their opposition to the idea of a Public Defender System seems to have brought out the ‘Who Dares Win’ spirit in Alf.

The Isle of Man Law Society are put soundly in their place as Alf conjectures in this item from ‘the sound box on Douglas Head’ that they jolly well have a conflict of interest because of all the millions in Legal Aid they get from the State:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/public-defender-unit-ide...

Some people suggest that the State prosecuting and Defending creates a conflict but who am I to disagree with Alfs ‘reasoning’. Anyway says Alf - chucking another metaphorical hand grenade - the system works in the United States and in a handful of other places on the planet.

If Alf were a military strategist I wouldn’t want to be in a platoon led by him.

The facts are that the Legal Aid work on the Isle of Man is ‘so lucrative’ that there have been umpteen enquiries to try and ensure enough practises carried it on. I’m not an expert on the Legal profession like Alf but I would wager there is more to be made doing commercial business than hanging around the courts waiting for the latest bizarre judgement from Jane Hughes.

Worse though than the practicalities of ‘who does what and earns what’ in the Manx legal aid system is Alf’s use of the United States as an example of the perfection of the Public Defender System. The US Justice system is hardly one to be emulated with its overcrowded jails and draconian sentencing and to top that the US PDS is in crisis according to this article in the Guardian two years ago:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/07/public-defender-us-crimi...

We already have a crisis over population growth, the impending Brexit disaster (sorry Howard) and our economic growth - not to mention the odd black hole in respect of State or Public Sector pensions. People are also anxiously holding their breath over Alfs grand strategy to buy the Steam Packet and other grandiose schemes such as building a cruise liner terminal at Douglas. Now our own ‘Colonel Blimp’ wants to create a crisis in the provision of legal aid - well good luck taking on ‘the Athol Street mob’ Alf you will need it!. However a word of advice. Before articulating about how good the US PDS scheme is do you homework!

Bernard Moffatt