"Stop me if you've heard this one before..."
The mindlessness and lack of any originality on the part of lawyers ('scuse ME: "barristers") gets really tiresome.
Once Julian Assange and his lawyers tried this argument appeal-to-sympathy, one could literally hear all lawyers, everywhere, saying, "Wow! Why didn't I think of this? I'm putting this one in my play-book also!"
Big clue, Sherlocks: something like this is like a beer-can: it can only be used one time.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
