However could Mr Carruthers simply have been playing a clever game of wiley political brinksmanship, resigning yet all the time knowing there would be pleas for his return. I would say. He's just an old fashioned judge who thinks his integrity is beyond question. It's not a political masterstroke. He'd be the last to think of it, he's completely unpolitical.
Most judges are.
They see all the grime of society coming through the court, but they don't see how politicians behave. Mr Hampson said that the Carruthers Inquiry's documents would be available for later scrutiny anyway. Everybody knows that at a royal commission, all the transcripts and exhibits and the whole lot are safeguarded and archived. But what they talk about is his notes, memorandums he is writing to himself. In his statement, Mr Carruthers noted he had returned all the inquiry's documents to the CJC, except for his personal notebooks which were handed to his solicitor.