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The law lords' current offices

Burdens of office: it might seem reasonable to assume that the top members of the judiciary, important folk as they are, enjoy at least the same levels of comfort and amenity as those in the highest ranks of the most successful law firms. A nice spacious office, a decent view, a swivel chair and their own personal assistant, for example. But - as Baroness Hale, the first female law lord, revealed last week - the law lords can only dream of such luxuries. While they used to hear cases in the grand, red-seated environs of the House of Lords chamber, after the Second World War the noise of workmen repairing war damage to the Palace of Westminster forced them to retreat to committee accommodation upstairs. And there they have remained, with 12 law lords sharing four secretaries and four research assistants, and not enough offices to go round. Despite the modesty of the lords' square footage, it seems their political colleagues still think they are taking up too much space. 'There is not enough room for the parliamentarians to do their job properly,' says the Baroness. 'They may well be sorry to see us go. The debate on the constitutional reforms in February 2004 certainly gave every impression that that was so. But they will not be sorry to get their hands on the offices which we and judicial office now occupy.' Let's hope the Middlesex Guildhall will offer the esteemed judges a little more in the way of comfort - at reasonable cost to the taxpayer, of course.