Lady Hale pulled pints? She’s all the stronger for it | Fiona Sturges

There’s no shame in having worked behind a bar. If only more of our pampered leaders had done an honest day’s work

For all the talk of an industry in crisis, you have to hand it to the British media for their ability to get to the nub of a story. It was, one imagines, with a gasp of triumph that the Daily Mail was able to deliver a stinging blow to the president of the supreme court, Lady Hale, she of the spider brooch and the damning verdict on our prime minister’s prorogation wheeze. Via a stunned headline, the paper was this week able to reveal that Hale, who graduated top of her class at Cambridge in law, who was the first woman to be appointed to the Law Commission, and the second to be appointed to the court of appeal, was in fact an “ex-barmaid”. Truly, we must applaud this mighty organ’s dogged commitment to truth and scrutiny.

I do worry about what sort of precedent this sets, however. When the day comes that I achieve something of professional import that has implications on the very notion of democracy, will I too be put through the media wringer? I may not have a law degree or a seat on the most powerful court in the land but, like Hale, I am an ex-barmaid. I’m also an ex-waitress, dishwasher and tour guide, and – my personal nadir – a former milk factory worker required to wear a hairnet and fetching paper suit. These jobs were executed through my late teens and early 20s with varying degrees of competency and enthusiasm. I still maintain, however, that my three years working behind a bar were the best fun I’ve ever had in a job.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2m1kRIx