Judges are not the only ones to enjoy sprinkling speeches with classical allusions. The Privacy Laws & Business conference in Cambridge last week heard Greek professor Lilian Mitrou describe the process of drafting a new European data protection law – detested by the UK government – as a ‘Herculean rather than Sisyphean challenge’.

(For the benefit of anyone who doesn’t know, Sisyphus was the chap punished by having to push a rock up a hill for eternity; Hercules was Steptoe & Son’s horse.)

Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, was up to the challenge: ‘Surely the relevant figure is Procrustes,’ he said, likening the rigid draft regulation to the original one-size-fits-all bed.

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