Picking up the tab: a profession unhappy at the government's intention to stick it with the entire start-up costs of the new regulatory framework will find grim amusement in a slip of the tongue by minister Baroness Ashton during last week's debate on the Legal Services Bill (or at least a slip of the Hansard transcriber). Referring to work by PricewaterhouseCoopers in estimating the multi-million pound costs - anywhere between £23.6 million and £27 million, but who knows what the final figure will be? - Baroness Ashton was quoted in Hansard as explaining how the accountants' work 'began afresh with a bottoms-up approach'. Those aghast at the sum would not be surprised to learn that it was acquired via one (or more likely many) pints and shorts.