Matthias Kelly: From the inaugural speech by the new chairman of the Bar Council, in London

From the inaugural speech by the new chairman of the Bar Council, in London

The past few months have seen a vigorous debate over the mounting cost of access to a career at the Bar, and the impact that massive student debt will have on diversity in our profession. It is a problem that needs to be addressed. The status quo is not an option. Pulling up the drawbridge on the next generation is unacceptable.

Talented working-class students are being denied the chance of a career in the professions. The Bar suffers in the same way. A strong Bar in the future needs to draw into its ranks the brightest and best. That can't be done if the children of the economically weak are excluded because they can't afford the cost of education.

Battle has now been joined with the Government over the reform of the criminal justice system. Except that, I would not see it as a battle of wills between the Bar and the Home Secretary. It would be trite to express it in such narrow terms. The Government is tackling crime – which in aggregate terms is now declining – at the wrong end.

It is appalling social conditions and the drugs culture more than anything else that create victims in our day and age, not the court system. That is why I want to see more investment in and support for the police to enable them to focus on conducting proper research and investigations.

I accept that the public are concerned by crime. However, I don't accept that the public are crying out for all previous convictions and "bad behaviour" to go in as evidence. I don't accept that the public are crying out for restrictions on jury trials. I do accept that the Home Office has had these issues on its "wish list" for a long time.

I believe the public do want more police on the streets to protect them, arrest offenders and address the reality of crime, which mars life for many people. Indeed, as things stand with the Bill, the Government is neither tough on crime nor tough on the causes of crime, to borrow an expression. It is tough on people's basic rights.

Tough on the right to a jury trial in a serious case. Tough on the right to a fair trial. And tough on the presumption of innocence. Tampering with the scales of justice will never solve the crime problem. It will make it easier to convict the wrong person of an offence.