Commiserating with legal aid minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath over the relegation of his football team, Birmingham City, to the Championship, Carol Storer, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG), highlighted the struggle faced by hard-pressed Championship clubs when competing for the best talent with their wealthier Premier League counterparts. ‘The problem is that teams with more money and better facilities will be around waiting to pounce,’ she said. ‘It is hard to recruit and keep staff and players in these conditions. Most games in the Championship are just as hard as in the Premier League. And however good the management team is, the lack of resources, lack of income and the difficulties of motivating staff will test the toughest of managers.’

The fact Storer could easily have been talking about the challenges facing legal aid firms was lost on none of those who had gathered to celebrate the launch of the fundraising campaign (Friends of LAPG), not least the minister himself. In his speech, Hunt quipped that he was tempted to set up a new group of his own, Friends of Legal Aid Ministers, though he doubted he’d find many joiners – an observation with which Obiter is inclined to agree...