Is it just me, or is anyone else who is currently being put through the mill of OLPAS a bit hacked off that there is no duty to give feedback of any kind before a chambers rejects us?

2 Pump Court binned my application yesterday and it would be nice if they could have just posted a one liner saying "Your degree's crap mate" or whatever.

I know that some chambers get millions of applications, but if the same person who has to read them spends another say 20 seconds just typing out a sentence explaining the decision it would be so much better. For starters it would help me understand what chambers are really looking for, which I find is not the same as what we are told they're looking for... secondly it would help me tighten up my application for the next round and thus help other chambers who will start receiving better apps.

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On a totally unrelated point, I want to know who's responsible for the vast numbers of trees around the Gray's Inn Road/Holborn area which drop copious amounts of feathery pollen things which get in my eyes {no joke with contact lenses} and generally make everyone feel like they have hayfever. If they're still alive I hope they're in pain for several months of the year - what a stupid thing to plant in an enclosed street, I mean really!

Oh dear.

I've just spent ten minutes researching a pseudonym for my Employment opinion. That's getting close to a whole number percentage of the research time for the actual law... this is bad - I have never before wanted a piece of work to go away this much!

I'm fully aware that it's been some time since I posted here. This is due primarily to laziness. My bad.

I failed the Legal Research assessment which has irritated me considerably. Especially since the pass I got on the Opinion was due entirely to the research I did - so in essence I'm being punished for not presenting some information in the way ICSL decide they want to see it. The excuse is that the skill of research is geared towards providing impartial information to a pupil master or leading counsel on a case. The way I see it is that by "teaching" two modules in the same period ICSL save having to pay another lecturer and timetable more classes.

Anyway - enough moaning about the shortcomings of the BVC, when ICSL loses its name and becomes the City University Law School {or whatever they call it} the overall quality of teaching will have to improve since they'll no longer be able to trade on the name alone. I just feel sorry for those good tutors who will be tarred with the brush of their less than satisfactory colleagues.

On a happier note Tony Blair is finally buggering off... I don't think I need to say any more except that I won't miss the lies, fake smiles and blood-boiling guile of that odious stain on Britain's history.