PRESIDENT’S PAGE Michael Frape President of the Cambridgeshire Law Society
‘There is no such thing as society’
I
n an interview with Woman’s Own magazine in September 1987, Margaret Thatcher (as she then was) uttered those oft-misquoted words. Misquoted, because the quote is often taken out of its original context and used to portray Thatcher in a certain, disobliging light. What she actually said (and its context) bears repetition:
“I am homeless, the Government must house me!” and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business…’ [my emphasis]
– spot on!
I am as in favour of success and proportionate financial rewards as the next lawyer. But with success and money comes a moral duty to help those less fortunate. Many firms and lawyers within those firms are contributing significant amounts of time and money to make our c ommunities better and fairer. This is to be applauded. But there is always more that we can all do to build a fairer, better, more just society. It is my hope that CLS can do its bit to help the legal community in Cambridgeshire come together and play its part in achieving that goal. We have been given much, and we must give much back. Plans are afoot to make this happen. Stay safe and strong, friends.
Thatcher’s message was simple, sensible and moral. First, she was reminding us that ‘society’ is an artificial construct, which does not exist in reality (see Popper et al). She was correct. And secondly, after looking after ourselves, it is our duty (that means you and all of us) to look after others less fortunate than ourselves. This bit is always forgotten, but is much more important. As lawyers, we all understand reciprocity. Most of us are referred work and in turn we refer work to our professional colleagues. But we should not forget the moral dimension in this equation:
For unto whomsoever much is given,
of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. [Luke 12:48]
Cambridge remains the UK’s most unequal city (Oxford is second) with a Gini Coefficient of 0.46. It has been for several years, having made the headlines for this in 2018. But we don’t need stats from the Centre for Cities to know that Cambridge and its legal community is booming and the most talented are reaping their well-deserved financial rewards.
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