Subject: Re: If you haven't yet voted, please consider Even to one whose participation in the internal affairs of the Bar Association has been confined to voting in elections for the Bar Council, the lobbying over recent weeks has been disappointing. There is considerable force in the contention that the Bar Council should be unbiased and temperate in its public statements – but those qualities should be shown by all, and not only by some, participants in the debate. Those who have not yet voted might give consideration to a few matters arising from the lobbying communications. What is the role of the Bar Association? Is it a primary role for the Association to speak on matters which affect non-members or the rule of law in this country (to “promote the administration of justice”)? Is its role primarily to further the financial benefit of members? Are matters such as the “competitive advantage” from selection of one rather than another set of postnominals, or increasing the amount of legal aid funding available to the Bar, objectives which should determine who to vote for? Do you know the people who are on the ticket you are asked to vote for? Does the charged langugage of some recent communications (such as “highly partisan forays,” “attacked [and] accused the then Prime Minister,” “conspicuously failed,” “trumpeted” and “vociferously”) bespeak an agenda which is properly described as “Political Neutrality”? What do your colleagues think? Have they talked with you or at you? Tony Slater A H Slater Barrister