The appointment of right-winger Chris Grayling as the new Justice Minister has evoked the expected (and possibly elicited) mixture of euphoria and opprobrium.
The Law Society Gazette, in the persons of John Hyde and Michael Cross, described the appointment as a "right turn", adding: "His appointment is likely to be viewed as an attempt by Cameron to win favour with the right of his party."
Christian Guy, managing director of the Centre for Social Justice – a 'think tank' set up by Iain Duncan Smith – said in a statement: "The appointment of Chris Grayling is to be welcomed, and I am sure that he will continue the Government's drive to cut reoffending and slow the revolving door culture that has blighted this country's criminal justice system for years. We hope he will carry the reforming spirit he has shown on welfare reform to the Ministry of Justice."
That 'reforming spirit' informed other opinions, which were not so welcoming. Huffington Post UK's political editor and Al Jazeera presenter Mehdi Hasan described Cameron's lurch to the right as "Tory retoxification".
"Cameron capitulated to his party's right-wing, Eurosceptic, 'hang 'em and flog 'em' tendency by sacking One-Nation Conservatives such as Ken Clarke, Sayeeda Warsi and George Young and promoting ardent Thatcherites such as Chris Grayling, Owen Paterson and Theresa Villiers," he declared.
Celebrated legal journalist Joshua Rosenberg, writing in The Guardian, was particularly concerned with the fact that Mr Grayling is not a lawyer.
"Now, in Chris Grayling, we have a lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice whose main qualifications for a post that has existed for 1,400 years are that he is perceived to be right-wing and once shadowed prisons," he wrote. In addition, he is "on the up", meaning he will not baulk at grabbing headlines in preference to delivering sound, if dull, legislation.
Even the Telegraph, not known for its left-wing views, described the move in its headline as a "sop to Conservative right".
News regarding the antics of the political right is not confined to these shores, however. As has been noted before in this column, if you want a really wacky story on a legal theme then look to the US. In the latest case it's Texas, where a local judge has elicited the support of the local sheriff for an increase in local taxes to recruit a gang of deputies. They will, he believes, be needed to repel the UN troops that will inevitably be sent in by President Obama if he gets re-elected, to quell the resultant civil unrest. Honest!
The story appeared in the legal expert's website Above the Law – where else – which carries a link to an interview with Judge Tom Head on Fox News.
In the interview he says: "He's going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the UN, and what is going to happen when that happens? I'm thinking the worst: civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. And we're not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations, we're talking Lexington; Concord; take up arms and get rid of the guy.
"Now what's going to happen if we do that; if the public decides to do that? He's going to send in UN troops. I don't want 'em in Lubbock County, OK, so I'm going to stand in front of their armoured personnel carrier and say 'you're not coming in here'."
There are people listed in this publication's Expert Directory that are eminently qualified to address this particular 'judge's' problems. Apparently, however, he is not a judge in the judicial sense: it transpires 'judge' in Texas is an administrative title, like the old town clerks in England.
Chris Stokes