Waist not, want not

That solicitors like to lunch, we all know.

So it is no surprise to learn that solicitors' waistlines are expanding to match, but we were shocked to receive official confirmation of this the other day from Geoffrey Baker, a partner at east Sussex firm Gaby Hardwicke.

Mr Baker passed on the planning history from a local search, which concluded at the foot of the first page thus: 'WC extension to magistrates' court to allow provision of enlarged solicitors.' We immediately made plans to measure solicitors in the Bexhill-on-Sea area and to check the size of the lavatory as against the standard in magistrates' courts elsewhere in the country.

Mr Baker himself admitted with shame that on the morning he wrote to us, the firm's senior partner had provided huge cream cakes and buns to celebrate his birthday.

Then we turned the page, and found that the sentence actually concluded with the words '...

room within existing building'.