Down here in West Sussex they don’t do rioting, but if they did I am confident that the criminal defence fraternity would have stepped into the breach and ensured representation for all those who needed it. And not just because they did need it, but because that would be the only way to ensure the smooth running of the whole operation, through the police stations and the courts.

Our colleagues in London, Manchester and the Midlands could be forgiven for wondering why they bothered. The lord chief justice quite rightly paid tribute in his Court of Appeal judgment to the efforts of all those involved in the criminal justice system to process the extraordinary level of cases in a timely and efficient way. He mentioned, in addition to the judiciary, the CPS, court staff, and the Prison Service and Probation Service.

Would it really have been too much to mention criminal defence professionals as well? Am I being too cynical in thinking that, given the slash-and-burn attack on the service and its funding, to do so would have been a tad politically sensitive?

Jane Macdougall, Solicitor and mediator, WMC Legal, Worthing