To answer the original OP, I think one of the reasons why the public aren't getting worked up about this, other than the obvious lack of sympathy for the nasty criminals and their only-slightly-less-nasty representatives, is that it is almost impossible to come up with a simple, punchy explanation of why this is bad.
Even on this thread, with several members of the profession giving perfectly correct information, someone reading this from a point of no knowledge, would be forgiven for thinking that BVT is directly aimed at the Bar.
The Bar are slightly more vocal and considerably better represented, so a lot of the media stories are inevitably going to focus on the threat to them. There is a threat, a huge threat but it comes from (excluding the whole QASA issue) the direct threat to solicitors from BVT.
If BVT comes in for solicitors, the Bar, particularly the junior Bar, are fucked - their pay is going to plummet way below what they can accept. But for solicitors, if BVT comes in, the majority of firms are going out of business, not because they can't survive on the lower fees, but because they won't have a contract at all. It's an absolute cut-off.
The general public aren't going to be vocal about all this, because it isn't something that they feel will affect them, so they won't wade through all the complicated information to get to the core issues. And the profession find it hard to get round that, because there is no simple, punchy headline.
And unfortunately, it is probably too late now. I was on a committee involved in fighting BVT last time round. We did everything in our power. We had a vocal presence at every meeting. We lobbied. We co-ordinated responses to the consultation. And we discovered that the general public simply won't get on board and that we're pretty much on our own.
There are a couple of members of the profession who have fought tirelessly against these proposals for years, never letting up, never entertaining the possibility of failure. One of them has now publicly said that we (solicitors) have to get our heads round the idea that BVT is going to happen and work out how we deal with it.
People always ask why we don't just go on strike, as though we're just sitting on our backsides saying "oh dear". The Bar have their own difficulties with striking, but they are at least all in it together. I have absolutely no doubt that certain members of the Bar are having discussions with certain large firms about going in-house, but generally the Bar will stand or fall together. Which is as it should be. The problem facing solicitors is a little different, and unfortunately we are not realistically going to stand together.
If the system comes in, any firm that does not bid for work will get no contract whatsoever. Their business will end. If you're not going to bid, you would have to be bloody sure that every other firm in your area is going to stick to their guns and not bid. I don't think any firm is able to have that level of confidence. The chances are that someone will crumble and put in a bid, or that someone will take advantage of the situation and put in a big bid. I've been in two different local justice areas during the two attempts to bring in BVT. In both areas, we could identify the firms that would inevitably stab the rest of us in the back.
Public awareness isn't going to see this off - there wasn't much public support last time and the government backed off, presumably because they accepted that the proposals were crap and weren't going to work. This government is having another go and, unfortunately, it is probably going to succeed, not least because they simply haven't left time for a proper round of consultations. They're pretty much sticking their fingers in their ears and saying "la la la we can't hear you."
The recent publicity is a good thing, obviously, but I think it's too late. This isn't a new thing - it's a fight that's been going on for years and we are losing.