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Public Accounts

I have some sympathy with that perspective, but it is a bit like saying that the foxes will always raid the hen coop and it is the farmer's fault if he does not fence in the chickens. If the premise is that barristers are generally thieves—that, given any opportunity, they will lift the silver, that they cannot be trusted to bill fairly, and that therefore it is the fault of the department in question if it has not nailed them down beforehand—then yes, that is fair. It is the attitude that I have always taken when we deal with farmers. As people will be aware—