‘Never waste a good crisis’ runs the old adage, and anyone in a position to use the crisis engulfing News International, various politicians and the police is using events as a peg to make their own point.

To the list of people utilising events, one can add the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge. The hacking inquiry, to be led by Lord Justice Leveson, proves, he insisted in his recent Mansion House speech, that ‘when the country is in the middle of the crisis’ the public look to judges to return order.

Well, perhaps. Lady Justice Hallett came in for high praise from many sources for the way she conducted the inquiry into the 7/7 bombings, concluded earlier this year. Difficult stories were told, hard events forensically analysed.

But few would argue that the final effect of retired judge Lord Hutton’s inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly was to affirm public faith in the judiciary. Conduct a Google search using the words ‘Lord Hutton’ and ‘whitewash’, and 161,000 results are shown.

Lord Judge is right to assert that judges are often unfairly vilified by the press and the public, and Leveson is widely respected. But in the public mind judge-led inquiries can go either way, and it is premature to declare this a good moment for the judiciary.

Along with a fair, firm and forensic approach, Leveson will need to use empathy and communication to convey to the public a sense that the inquiry ‘gets’ the issues involved.