It must have been a hectic day in Downing Street. Until the morning of 12 June the intention was to make good on two weeks of Whitehall whispers by refashioning the Lord Chancellor’s Department (LCD) as a powerful Ministry of Justice, with a full criminal justice brief and a strengthened role as guardian of the judiciary.
Yet by the time of the 5.45pm announcement that the 1,400-year old office of Lord Chancellor was to go, leaving Lord Irvine as the last person to hold the role, the result appeared both more radical than expected and a good deal more confusing.
