Trade unions, the professions and rising inequality | Letters

What a thoroughly reactionary article by Simon Jenkins (From militant doctors to angry lawyers, professionals are the new union barons,19 November), supporting government attacks on junior doctors and legal aid lawyers. He peddles the nonsense that the cost of legal aid is 20 times Europe's average, ignoring the many comparable reports that have found costs to be average. His quaint middle-class idea that representation can simply be resolved by us seeking mediation ignores the role of some legal aid lawyers in supporting campaigns that exposed terrible police practices in cases such as Hillsborough or Stephen Lawrence.

His idea that everyone should be denied both a solicitor and a barrister would lead directly to masses of miscarriages of justices, where the police and prosecution would have representation denied to everyone else. It would also lead to a lack of accountability. The last time I was at court was at an inquest for a family of a man who had died in a G4S prison. The prison had skilfully managed to tell the wrong family their son had died. This did not stop them having four representatives at the inquest - but it also did not stop the jury criticising their practices. Decent representation may not be important for the likes of Simon Jenkins, but the majority of society cannot afford to be without it.
Matt Foot
Co-founder, Justice Alliance