Cameras in Court

Should cameras be allowed in court? Traditionally, the answer has been no. In fact, until recently, no-one has even been allowed to doodle in court (as I discovered to my cost as a pupil barrister, many years ago, let alone take pictures or – God fobid – film the proceedings. You could not draw in court, you could not sketch. Which is why the artists' impressions of courtroom scenes always look so feeble – it's because the court artists have to do the whole thing from memory.

But now, all that is to be swept away in the bright lights of TV coverage. Wait until the public really gets to grips with the excitement of an interlocutory application or a hearing on the taxation of costs. X Factor and Strictly – watch out! You've got some serious competition at last. Almost as exciting as Parliamentary proceedings.