At last week’s press conference to mark the Supreme Court’s first year in business, chief executive Jenny Rowe indicated that the court would be unable to operate if it had to make a 40% cut to its budget. But from what Lord Phillips revealed about how things used to be at the House of Lords, let’s hope the chancellor will stump up the cash to keep the new premises open. Phillips described the ‘extraordinary charade’ that went on in the old gaff, away from the public gaze. He said proceedings were like a ‘mini debate’ that was ‘utterly unintelligible to anyone who was there’. Not that anyone actually was there, he lamented, ‘except the bishop’, whose presence was apparently required, for some reason that Obiter cannot fathom, but doubtless a kind reader will inform us. Obiter implores chancellor Osborne to have some heart, and refrain from sending their lordships back to the House of Lords ‘basement’, as Phillips described it. Apart from any other benefits, the new court has done much to improve the public’s understanding of the justice system, a fact of which the Supreme Court president has proof. When asked at social occasions what his job is, he is delighted to report that more people now understand what he does. Though of course they may just be being polite.