There are good losers and bad losers: which category does the Ministry of Justice fall into? It does not seem so long ago that I was writing in this column about the magnificent and successful work done by the association and other organisations in opposition to the introduction of a best value tendering (BVT) scheme. With the congratulations still ringing in practitioners? ears, the MoJ comes up with another proposal for BVT, which, if put into effect, will mean catastrophe for the vast majority of our members.

In my last editorial, I mentioned how this government moves the goal posts. This proposal is a classic case: the ink could not have even have been put in the printer on the new criminal contracts when, boy, did these goal posts move. You can rest assured that the association will once again be working with the other representative organisations to try and look after our members? best interests. Indeed, with committee member, Anil Rajani, I shall represent the LCCSA at a working group of practitioners organised by the Law Society. The group will aim to identify areas where unnecessary bureaucracy can be minimised or removed. Please feel free to forward any suggestions you may have to either Anil or me.

We work in very difficult times but, every so often, something does cause some amusement. I was at a Crown Court recently when it was discovered that the CPS had not served 4,000 pages of paginated documents in time. ?Why?? asked the judge. The reason: they had run out of paper! I suppose it may not be long before we shall have to provide our own paper if we wish to be served material by the prosecution.

At the end of Strictly Come Dancing, they say, ?Keep dancing!? All I can say is, ?Keep battling!?