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NewLiving Diary Index
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item0051A 810, 811 810 8 September 2003 Barefoot AdvocatesWe need a new advocacy profession, a third. They should be the "barefoot advocates" of society, not a highly-qualified and highly-paid legal profession, but a secondary para-legal profession whose practitioners would operate in the salary-bands of, say, teachers. I have dubbed them " Public Advocates".Lawyers have become too expensive for their skills to be deployed widely, throughout society. Public Advocates would be properly trained, and receive a professional qualification, albeit a minor one (a one-year post-graduate diploma, or a longer course for non-graduates). Like solicitors, some would work for public agencies, others would enter private practice. They would offer a realistically-priced alternative to the mainstream solicitor/barrister system. They would have no rights of audience in the Courts (though that might develop), they would write letters, mediate in simple cases, explain to clients the Courts and the social-security system, appear before administrative tribunals (and eventually before the lower civil courts) and pursue consumer complaints.
Some might not consider this to be a "democratic" development in the conventional sense. But I would beg to differ. Just as the Jury system, and the Lay Justices, are to be treasured as institutions which mobilise the personal involvement of citizens in the governance of their society, so a College of Public Advocates would extend active participation. That theme of active participation also runs through my next two suggestions. Some of this work is currently done by Citizens Advice Bureaux (and many CABx Advisers would certainly wish to achieve this professional qualification). But the option of private practice would remove the service from the ever-present funding constraints of the CABx system. Given a supply of qualified and validated public advocates, other charitable and public agencies might themselves embark upon the provision of such services. Each qualified practitioner would be entitled to use the style "Public Advocate" , just as the suffices Solicitor and Barrister-at-law are used. Some might not consider this to be a "democratic" development in the conventional sense. But I would beg to differ. Just as the Jury system, and the Lay Justices, are to be treasured as institutions which mobilise the personal involvement of citizens in the governance of their society, so a College of Public Advocates would extend active participation.
8 September 2003 Are you a C-Driver?
For at least five years, I have been wrestling with the problem of aggressive, un-cooperative driving. And not just my own - everybody's. I have not come up with any solution. Our roads are unpleasant and dangerous places simply because they are an amoral universe. It is a moral desert. Road rage is only an extreme example of the seething mass of conflict and aggression which interpenetrates every traffic queue. In spite of the inherent courtesy and niceness of Highway Code, conflict is endemic - confrontational driving is rife, few drivers evince any consideration for each other. There must be some way of conveying the principles of moral driving. After all, if Jesus Christ, Buddha or Mohammed were alive today, they would not be content with loving neighbours, and desisting from coveting neighbours' asses or wives - they would be preaching the Morality of Driving. The highway has become a universe desperately in need of internalised moral regulation. However strict the external regulation, our highways would be transformed if we all behaved decently to each other - helping to resolve conflicts, gridlocks, remaining calm, avoiding retaliation, permitting lane-merging, conceding priorities rather than asserting our own, helping others out of dangerous situations, and driving by "on the other side".
No collective initiative has yet captured this key theme of modern life. One week every year has been designated "Good Driving Week" by the Automobile Association, but that has a very low profile. The key-words of any campaign must be clear -
conciliatory - concession -
considerate C-driving rejects all the A's - aggression - attack - Alpha-male - antagonism - alienation - amorality - assertion - assertiveness - the lot. I cannot imagine the formal institutionalisation of such "moral" behaviour (cf The Institute of Advanced Motorists) - it would just be too cumbersome. What about my getting some stickers printed? I am a C driver Would you be prepared to put one on your car window? In your rear window? Should we try and generate a popular movement by word of mouth, for the positive assertion of considerate driving? Could we talk up the theme, by networking alone? Can you think of any other way? What do you think? Drop me a line
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