Sir Ivan Lawrence: I am ashamed of this government

One of today’s best speeches, and certainly the most interesting politically, came from the former Conservative MP Sir Ivan Lawrence QC.

He reminded the audience that he’s been 60 years a Conservative, and 52 of them a barrister, but in that time

never has there been a demonstration like this.

It is “atrocious” he said, that the government has “forced” lawyers to take action.

All my life I have been against strikes, against industrial action that hasn’t been justified – but this industrial action is justified.

He said politicians had seen the legal profession as an easy touch:

we have been walked over year after year as our incomes have been cut, as the criminal justice system has been threatened, because the government has had nothing to fear about us.

But now, he said,

we are going to make them frightened of our resolve today, frightened of our determination to stop them destroying the criminal justice system which my party has held so dear, the party of law and order which has built up the reputation of this great country for its respect for rule of law.

Sir Ivan is an interesting figure: no left-winger, but an (in the best sense) old-fashioned “law and order” Conservative of a type we hear too little from, these days.