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The Lord Chief certainly has a point.

Just have a look at how few salaried appointees have NOT been Recorders and you can see how a Recorder appointment is viewed by the judiciary as a proving ground for advancement, yet with so much "bed blocking" (as it has been described) going on it is little wonder there are so many vacancies remaining on the High Court and Circuit Bench.

Apparently the average length of service for a Recorder is 20 years. Consider alongside that statistic the fact that the JAC's diversity outreach activity has only really taken hold in the last 10 years and you will see how harmful to diversity in the higher courts is the lack of fluidity amongst the Recorder population: almost exclusively white, male, and barristers.