In the course of a speech in which he appears to have demolished the idea that mediation can somehow be an alternative to a justice system involving binding and compulsory law enforcement the Master of the Baps Rolls Lord Neuberger appears also to have tried to tackle the myth about how expensive our justice system is in comparison with our European neighbours. This point in particular is debated in the comments which flow from a Law Gazette article on the speech – what DO the figures actually show? I was going to post about what the Council of Europe report that Neuberger relies on in his speech actually does say, but I appear to have already done this by posting a longer than planned comment on the article itself. In which I think I have demonstrated the old adage that you can draw what you like from statistics (and possibly also the old adage that I don’t have any idea how to interpret statistics because I studied far too many arts subjects at school).

So if you would just form a line and head on over to The Gazette, read the article and subsequent comments – that would be most kind, and I won’t have to cut and paste it all into this blog post. Tables and statistics and such like make my head swim, especially on a Saturday night when I’ve washed my penicillin down with a chianti or two and this is therefore an essential efficiency, avoiding duplication of work and ensuring that frontline resources can be deployed in the essential tasks of sipping and pouring.