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Inquests, at least those into well-publicised tragedies, seem increasingly to have become more media exercises than genuine investigations. I cannot see the point of a reopened inquest into the Birmingham pub bombings, decades later and when the IRA admitted responsibility: the verdict will obviously be unlawful killing. The bereaved families and the injured may want their grief to be aired but they are going to learn nothing new, including names of unconvicted suspects. The Hillsborough case may be an example of how funding relatives might have affected an inquest result, but we must await the result of the current criminal case to see what the final outcome actually is. I doubt that funding representation for families, making inquests more like trials, would be a forward step.