As the mists of time dissipate, we arrive in the Roaring Twenties. It’s party time at the Law Society. Editorials are ‘generally sycophantic towards High Court judges… however, a pot shot was taken’ at a judge over a case involving bags of potatoes, followed by an about-turn in tone a week later. However, some things never change: a judge who had been an MP for 30 years revealed the ‘Commons smoking room was “a veritable school for scandal”… The average MP was a mechanical toy, manipulated at his will and pleasure by the party leader. The road to office involved a toll of “fidelity, complaisant and obsequious”’.
There were discussions about merging the professions of barristers and solicitor. Lord Merrivale opined ‘that while speech was a powerful instrument, any practising barrister know that silence was very often as great’.