The only comfort for the government in the new appointments is that they might take the heat out of the row between the judges and the government over the home secretary's 'three strikes and you're out' sentencing proposals. Lord Taylor used his valedictory speech to the Lords on Thursday to attack Mr Howard's plans to impose minimum sentences for crimes of violence as a threat to the independence of the judiciary. As parliament can prescribe a maximum penalty without infringing the constitutional independence of the judges, so it can prescribe a minimum,' he said. However, he may not be able to carry the rest of the judges of the criminal division of the Court of Appeal with him on the issue. Most of his career has been spent at the Bar and later on the bench dealing with civil cases.
Lawyers have other concerns about the two men.
Barristers, for example, are unhappy that the new Lord Chief Justice is the only senior judge to have openly supported the end of their monopoly on advocacy in the higher courts. And solicitors fear that Lord Woolf's almost-completed review of civil justice will drive many smaller practices out of business. However, what rankles with many Conservative lawyers is the government's failure to appoint someone sharing their views to these senior positions. They concede that there is an absence of suitable candidates on the right. The same critic describes the two appointments as a 'missed opportunity' to influence the thinking of the judiciary for the next 10 years.