Bulldog muzzled

We must confess that the Obiter office was deserted by two minutes to five on Monday. Our patriotic/deluded team was keen to join in a lusty rendition of the national anthem with Stevie G and the lads, evoking the Agincourt spirit for England’s Euro 2012 clash with France.

No such minor dispensation was allowed to the hard-working folk at Ministry of Justice HQ, however, whence a spokesman primly informed us that ‘it is a normal working day and we expect [staff] to fulfil their contractual obligations’. It was the same story at the Solicitors Regulation Authority, where a regulator’s work is never done. Across the Channel, meanwhile, the French notaries were doubtless just finishing lunch. It was surely for the best. Many people have probably had enough of patriotic grandstanding, what with last week’s damp and indifferently televised jubilee flotilla. And England’s unusually positive start need not concern law firm partners worried about remaining games encroaching on precious billable hours. They are all employee-friendly 7.45pm kick-offs. And the final (don’t laugh!) is on a Sunday.