The chairman of the Bar Council today launched a withering attack on British Prime Minister Tony Blair's sweeping changes to the judiciary.
The Bar Council, which represents barristers in England and Wales, was scrutinising the reforms arising from the Prime Minister's reshuffle this week at its annual meeting today.
Its chairman Mr Matthias Kelly said the axing of the post of Lord Chancellor, the creation of a Supreme Court and Judicial Appointments Commission were "difficult to digest".
Lawyers were very concerned that the new appointments body would be overrun by Labour "placemen", Mr Kelly said.
His complaints follow similar anger from the Conservatives and some Labour MPs about the creation of a new Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA), which swallowed up the Lord Chancellor's Department and the Scottish and Welsh Offices.
"They (the changes) are certainly are sweeping in scale, it almost takes your breath away, and certainly the speed of them has been quite remarkable," Mr Kelly told BBC Radio 4's Todayprogramme.
"Whilst many of us have been calling for these changes for quite some considerable time, for them all to arrive at once is perhaps somewhat difficult to digest."
Mr Kelly welcomed the creation of a Supreme Court but said there should have been wider consultation about the appointment of judges.
"Whilst in principle I welcome the appointment of a Judicial Appointments Commission, it's the detail and it's really the question of who's going to choose these people who choose the judges? How are they going to be made up?
"Because if, for example, it's going to be a lot of party hacks or political people, then we are into major problems," he said.
PA