The Restoration

Pro-QC ticket running candidates for NSW bar council election ... Move to capture control of bar and restore full plumage for silks ... Self-basting ... Terrible craving for monarchical accessories ... Public interest missing in action 

ALL the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men couldn't put Humpty together again. 

But they are not giving up. A clutch of the Queen's favourites are running a ticket for the NSW bar council elections with the aim of getting enough posteriors around the table to change policy and beg the attorney general to hand out letters patent to Sydney silks.

Voting is underway now and the Queen's ticket of 21 candidates claims it has the numbers because everyone wants to be properly plumed. 

In all, there is a field of 110 candidates contesting all spots on the council. The poll count will take place on Friday, November 7, and announced that day. 

Contenders for the Queen say it's nothing to do with status, it's all about being competitively disadvantaged because Victorian and, even more galling, Queensland barristers are pouncing about as Queen's Counsel. 

The NSW QC ticket includes David (Bubba) Bennett, Alan Sullivan, Jeffrey Phillips, John Hyde Page, Danny Feller, Chris Barry, Justin Hogan-Doran plus assorted ors. 

The Page Boy emailed the rank and file last week, urging people to vote for the ticket, even though members don't "know or like" the candidates. 

Endorsements don't come more powerful than that. 

Shortly after the publication of the Priestley report in April, the then bar president Phillip Boulten announced there would be no submission to the AG to get parliament to amend section 90 of the Legal Profession Act.   

The position of the council was that the government should play no part in handing out barristerial embroidery. 

There as been agitation ever since for the restoration of the full furbelow. A meeting was held in August at the Leagues Club in Phillip Street to reignite the issue, now the proponents for the restoration are hoping to stage a political putsch.  

Nowhere in the "Yes" arguments has the public interest been adequately explained. 

Last call we made to attorney general Brad Hazzard he said he was not interested in having the legislation changed. "Let's move on," he said. 

If control of the bar council does change it will need every friend it can find in Macquarie Street.