With all due respect to the striking legal aid Criminal solicitors and the Law Society, this is an impressive bunch of protesting lawyers. A reminder that the struggle between the rule of law and rule by decree is sometimes literally that.

I do find myself wondering if these are the scenes we’d see on Fleet Street, should Blair (or later Brown or Little Lord Fauntleroy) attempt to rid himself of the turbulent Lord Phillips (or, more furtively, shift executive discretion out of the purview of the Courts). Perhaps street protest, barricade building and countering baton charges should be a compulsory on the LPC. But tear gas plays havoc with the billable hours.