Whistleblowers often end up meeting barristers. They are a odd breed. It occurred to me that while I was more than happy to work in excess of 150 hours a week for patients - barristers have rather a different work ethic. The first thing they all love is money. The second thing they all love is showing off. I often stood in the side lines asking myself why these people just didn't spend a little bit of time reading. They also believe that they exist above us mere mortals. Maybe they all fly above us with those flappy cloaks they wear like big fat bats waiting for the next money infusion. Essentially, the more money you have, the more charming they are to you. If you look fairly poor, they don't pay much attention to you. When I met Robert Jay QC, my bank balance was nearly empty as he was paid at his going rate of a few hundred an hour plus VAT. If junior doctors charged that kind of rate, the public would be squealing about it. Robert came after Andrew Nicol QC. Both are now judges. Nicol though was once paid a few thousand for an opinion on the GMC. He never did complete the opinion nor did we see a para of it. He kept the money even though he was late with the opinion. Nicol will flap around this and say he was entitled to the thousands he kept. In the meantime, I was forced into Robert Jays chamber out of desperation. There was a rule there, no work without money. I learned this legal rule quite early on. When the files returned from Nicol, there were merely post it notes everywhere. It occurred to me that he bagged a few thousand for putting post it notes on my files. I hope he spent my hard earned money on something useful like a new wig tin or posh English tea. As the years went by, Nicol became a top judge but he never gave me back my money nor did he donate that money to the homeless. He felt no remorse about his delay that negatively affected my case forcing me to pay twice. He once wrote me an email making all kinds of excuses as to why he kept the money. The bottom-line was this, he never completed what he was paid for. He was late and he decided to keep the money because he could. QCs can do these things. Even if you took someone like him to court, the judge would back the QC and look down on someone like me. His chambers, the self professed beacons of human rights were just as cold. Now money doesn't grow on trees for junior doctors. It is made by blood and sweat pouring out of you after hours and hours of work. Nicol and his post it notes always remind me that barristers never truly value the hard work that junior doctors do to earn a living. Nicol hails from the same chambers as the Queen of Common Purpose and the infamous Amal Clooney. Well, at least we know Nicol likes post it notes. Maybe someone will buy him an entire room of yellow post-it notes one day. Maybe now, he has a smartphone reminder to advise him to meet deadlines on time. Someone should design an App for barristers to keep to deadlines previously agreed. I should say that not all barristers are like this. Some are decent people but that's quite rare. Most senior ones tend to be people who have forgotten what real life is like. I often used to look in their eyes only to see pound signs. Money equals work. No money equals no work. Ofcourse, if doctors did that kind of thing, patients would die.