Secularists may grumble, but Obiter cherishes the annual service at Westminster Abbey to mark the opening of the legal year. The massed robed ranks of our assembled judiciary are a splendid spectacle for delighted tourists and locals alike.
Going by the laughter and selfie-taking, our learned judges seem to revel in the occasion as much as the rest of us.
On the press benches our main job, apart from judicial robe-identification, is to discern any between-the-lines messages in the readings of the great and the good. The choice for our Muslim lord chancellor was pitch-perfect: two verses from Proverbs 2, attributed to King Solomon (or the wise prophet Sulayman ibn Daoud, if you prefer). 'Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you,' The Right Honourable Shabana Mahmood MP concluded.
For the second reading, the lady chief justice entered potentially more contemporary debate with the famous 'turn the other [cheek]' lines from Matthew 5. The quote, read alas in modern English, continues: 'and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well'.
In his address, The Right Reverend Peter Selby, a former bishop to His Majesty's Prisons, built on the theme of forgiveness, suggesting that banging up offenders for ever longer periods does not necessarily represent proportionate 'an eye for an eye' justice nor achieve the closure sought by crime victims and society in general. Ministers dealing with the prisons crisis 'certainly need our prayers for wisdom and courage in their tasks,' he said.
Amen to that.
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