not be made a QC.'' That is what Opposition Leader Mr. Frederick Wade is reported to have told the House of Assembly after it was revealed that Mrs.

Lois Browne Evans had not been made a Queen's Counsel.

Mr. Wade is absolutely correct. It is impossible to imagine any rational reason to deprive Mrs. Browne Evans. It is also unfair.

This decision is an unwise and unbalanced attack on a distinguished legal practitioner who has also had an elaborate political career. Perhaps it is her political career which has robbed her of her QC and that is wrong and should not be the case. If we are going to award QCs then they should be awarded strictly on contribution to the bar and it may be that they should only be awarded, as they are in Britain, for contribution to the courts. Unlike Mrs.

Browne Evans, some people who now have QCs almost never appear in court, which seems to be out-of-line. If you want a QC, you should have to make court appearances and should have a distinguished record in Bermuda's courts.

If QCs cannot be awarded properly, then let's not award them at all. Maybe Britain has made this embarrassing mistake and if that is so, we are owed an explanation. Mr. Wade has described the exclusion of Mrs. Browne Evans as an "insult'' and he is correct. We see it as a personal insult to Mrs. Browne Evans and we also see this exclusion as an insult to women.

We think a QC is an unnecessary designation for lawyers in Bermuda where they now do not designate top talent and are only letter head decoration. However, since they are awarded and people do accept them, they must be awarded fairly.

QCs after names do make a certain sense in Britain where lawyers use them to identify their success and seniority. In Bermuda everyone knows in the normal course of events which lawyers are good and which are not, and who they would prefer to represent them. The Bermudian public will not be fooled by an undeserved QC after a name but there is a danger that overseas clients may be charged extra by a useless lawyer because he possesses an undeserved QC. In the same way, the Bermudian public knows that Mrs. Browne Evans should have a QC and has not been given one. This newspaper is not going to get into who among the recipients does and does not deserve a QC but there are holders who have had a far less prominent career at the bar than Mrs. Lois Browne Evans, yet she has been deprived.

We have heard it argued that Mrs. Browne Evans is no longer active in the courts but the fact is that she has had a distinguished career in Bermuda's courts and when she was at the height of her career, Bermuda did not receive QCs. If we are catching up with the past by honouring service, she should be very high on the list.

The truth is that if we cannot award QCs, which are seen as an honour, with both fairness and good sense then we should not award them at all.