Was it a bit of crafty bureaucratic gerrymandering that prompted the Government to announce it would amend the bill currently passing through Legco in order to give solicitors advocacy rights in the courts - at the very time that the strongest opposition, including barrister and legislator Margaret Ng and Bar chairman Gladys Li are out of town? Practically every advocate of note is either at the UN Human Rights hearing in Geneva, or attending the International Bar Association conference in Berlin.
The British Trade Commission has completed its move from Harcourt Road into the splendid new building in Supreme Court Road which will be the British Consulate from July 1 next year. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to mention this to Hongkong Telecom, who are still giving out the old telephone number, and claim they know nothing about any move to new premises.
Ring the old number, and all you hear is the discontinued line tone. Let us hope unwary callers do not assume that the place has closed down, and the staff have gone off without settling the phone bill.
Stirring words from Simon Li Fook-sean, latest chief executive hopeful, about the importance of the rule of law, and 'a judicial system to safeguard the human rights and freedoms of our citizens'.
The difficulty is that these cherished liberties are founded on the democratic principle, and if Mr Li's past utterances still hold good, he does not value democracy too highly.
In a book by British writer Ian Buruma The Missionary and the Libertine published earlier in the year, Mr Li is quoted as saying: 'By not having universal suffrage we keep out a lot of people who make absolutely no contribution to society in Hong Kong.' He also told Buruma that professional people 'with interests to protect' should be elected to run Hong Kong as 'they and not the parasites, deserve representation'.
A parasite, presumably, being anyone who is not a professional. Not only is this highly individual viewpoint at odds with democracy, it is not exactly in tune with communism either, certainly not Maoist doctrine.
