Andro works her magic and TA DA!

Many many many Thanks to Andro who has very kindly redesigned my blog to be very much more pleasing to the aesthetic barrister wannabe eye.

Andro is a goddess of web design, and chambers are missing a trick for not giving her pupillage, think of all the website designing she could do!!

Thank you Andro

Lost

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Protect the NHS

Lost is slightly disgusted about certain American Media Distributors(not so very fantastic Mr Fox), ganging up on the NHS, to show its citizens that if President Obama's healthcare reforms went through, that they would end up all waiting on lists for years on end and would probably die before they got surgery.

Daniel Hannan in his interview on dirtbag tv, agreed with the presenter Glenn Beck, commentating that a nationalised healthcare system would be detrimental to the US as it hasn't worked in the UK. Whilst I liked his rant at Gordo, I do not support him at all when he is attacking an institution that is central to the UK, and is one of the biggest employers in the world (outside the Chinese Red Army..)

Fox News also had this treat that the NHS panders to terrorists. (edit: oops this video is over two years old!)

Seriously? Where the fuck do they come up with such ridiculous ideas? How far will they go to make sure that their fellow countrymen (all 40 million of them) who do not have healthcare, cannot get at least some sort of basic service from Obama's health care reform?

I am not saying that everything within the NHS is fine and dandy, there are a multitude of problems, but I believe it is unacceptable to spout these pathetic lies about the NHS, for no good reason.

Glenn Beck said "I hope you become Prime Minister one day" to Daniel Hannan, well I sure for one f'ing hope that he doesn't.

Should have become a dentist

Ok so I was going to post a picture to accompany this post, however if you type "bad teeth" into google it provokes a gut wrenching reaction (and my teeth are certainly not that bad)

Long story short, I went to the dentist today, after 3 years of not going since I went to university.
I now have a £500 bill to foot.

Goodbye (well earned) research money!

Moral of the story: see your dentist regularly at least every 6 months to a year....

A Box Ticking Exercise

I despair dear bloggers, at the amount of "box ticking" we have to do in order to make ourselves look more attractive. When I was eating lunch with one barrister, he said that in his day, the people who marshaled with judges were creepy, and not that many people did it. The judge I was shadowing said that they had so many marshals that they had to set up new rules about when marshals could sit and eat lunch with the other judges.. I would like to say for the record that I am not creepy, ok perhaps slightly, you'd have to ask Bar or Bust.

I suppose we are all looking for that special "spark" that will make us look good, make our CVs glow with fluorescent barristerial glee, that makes chambers go "Yes! We need him!" rather than "why do all these CVs look the same?" or "how do I choose between all these desperate people?"

I personally don't think (and have had the benefit of receiving independent views of those in the know) that Cambridge will give me that "spark" when applying for criminal pupillage, and it is for that reason that I have decided not to go, because I would rather do something I enjoy. Then again the more I think about it the more I feel a small stress tumour growing inside my head, but decisions have to be made, and with big decisions, there are always big consequences if they go wrong. I hereby fully accept the consequences of not going off to a world class university... (the tumour may have just expanded by several metres)

But my reasoning may be even political and perhaps it shouldn't. At the Scholarship Dinner, everyone placed immediately around me was from Oxbridge, five people all having being to an elite institution(s) was slightly disturbing (I mean no disrespect of course). I would have liked to have seen more diversity, especially from those who wish to go to the Bar now as recent graduates.

In regards to other box ticking, how many mini-pupillages do you have to do to show that you are committed to the profession? Yes they are interesting, but sometimes I have felt that I am in a driving lesson, however my instructor won't let me drive and I just have to sit there and watch. I want to drive the car! (In reality I am absolutely shit at driving, had so many lessons, but hated my driving instructor, perhaps why the analogy is so relevant as it explains my frustration)

I'm not sure how many more boxes there are left to tick and I haven't as of yet applied for pupillage, but I feel that there is considerable strain upon many a law student to fulfil ALL these boxes and perhaps maybe many more, before ever being considered for pupillage. Of course it differs on each individual set, but the bar (excuse the pun) is high, and the dedication we have to show I'm sure is more than any other profession(apart from medicine).. and for what? Months (once you tot it all up) spending free time to further our careers? In the idealic search for a pupillage when you are competing against maybe 100-200 other applicants, with the same achievements? Do chambers even care?

There is of course no point in doing things just to have them on your CV, (but we all secretly know that some of us HAVE to do things we don't like in order to have them on our CV.) I am beginning to feel that my desire to become a barrister has become a big, no sorry MASSIVE box ticking exercise, and I don't feel it should be.

-End-

Cambridge v Other Uni

So today as I was checking to see if my lecturer had sent me back my research proposal, I found out that I have in fact got a place at Cambridge to study the M.Phil in Criminology.

Bugger..

I don't understand how the universe works with just dropping bombshells on you, or why it wants you to make impossible decisions all at once.

After editing my research proposal (down from 4 areas to just 1) I realised that I really do enjoy the Law of Evidence and that I am actually quite good at it. I did enjoy Criminology as an undergraduate, however a certain teacher who gave me 46% for an essay I spent two weeks on seriously pissed me off and from then on I did no work.

When it was suggested to me again at the beginning of this year as a possible post-grad option I was a bit repulsed, but gradually I got round to the idea that I had also enjoyed Criminology and it was really that I didn't like my teacher that put me off it.

I haven't got a confirmed place for my MA Res, however I don't see the problem with me getting in. My lecturer and I have discussed the research and he is happy to supervise me and I think my proposal would fascinate me non stop.

I know I've blogged about this before and sorry to all bore you with the Cambridge v Other Uni dichotomy, its just that I unfortunately keep getting things that I never thought I had a chance in hell of getting.

I have various options, but it depends whether I actually want to do a PHD, if not then it would be more beneficial to do the MA Res in Evidence. I am extremely tempted to go to Cambridge, you would have to be an idiot not to be! I am just not sure if I will enjoy it. However I am certain that I will enjoy my MA Res, but will i be kicking myself in years to come if I don't go?

Best of Luck to all of you who are underwaiting pupillage offers!