Not a great week for our beloved uber-regulator, the Legal Services Board.

First, the lord chancellor flicks away its impassioned case for the regulation of will-writing like a speck of dust from the irreproachable Mechlin lace at his wrists. All the board’s chairman David Edmonds could say in response was: ‘It is their decision alone to make and we will study the details and respond in due course.’

Meanwhile, a valiant effort by the chief executive Chris Kenny (pictured) to persuade a room full of Law Society members that they don’t really pay for the board fell… a little flat. Kenny told the annual Presidents and Secretaries Conference last week that the super-regulator’s costs are met not by the profession but by ‘the people you serve’.

Three council members in quick succession challenged that assertion, saying that, in competition with the likes of licensed conveyancers, they cannot pass on the costs of regulation to clients. Kenny tried briefly to liken the overhead to that of a photocopier contract, but wisely decided to stop digging.