Absolvitor is shocked, suprised and saddened to read of “bunfights”, “skulduggery” and “ambition, jealousy and outrage” at the Supreme Court – all over who would be the new Justice at the country’s highest court.

According to Frances Gibb at The Times (and picked up by Charon QC) all is not as it seems in the appointment of the Supreme Court’s No. 12. Specifically – the circumstances in which Jonathan “brain the size of a planet” Sumption QC was first of all seen as a shoo-in for the job and, then … not so much.

In the words of Steve H, posting a comment on Gibb’s article online: “Let us have excellence at the top, not rewards for time serving at the upper staff college level.”