Ken Clarke, at 72, confirms that judges will have to retire at 70 otherwise ‘politicians or somebody else will have to start appraising their performance’.

I was angered to read in the same Gazette a column by Charles Plant, chair of the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, about the introduction of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. I have already notified the SRA that I do indeed intend to continue to do the advocacy that I have been doing for the past 20 years and still feel qualified to do. I have frequently been told that reappraisals and assessments of the quality of my work as duty solicitor will be carried out. Clarke’s argument seems to have remarkably little relevance.

Abigail Pavitt, Hartnells, London SE5