If you want to understand just how rotten the English legal system has become, look no further than the Court of Protection. The very notion of a secret court is an attack on the principles our law is supposed to uphold, and what little information escapes from within reveals a tyrannical system where decency is reviled and iniquity celebrated.

That sounds like hyperbole, but how else can you describe a secret court which jailed a woman for trying to look after her own sick father? The presiding Judge Cardinal (who has a predilection for secrecy, it seems) jailed her on a charge of contempt for not acquiescing to the local council which was effectively holding him prisoner.  I suppose truth is no defence, for his court is indeed contemptible.

The Court of Protection must be forever adjourned. Whatever inconveniences are created by openness are as nothing compared to the rape of justice which transpires within.

Judge Cardinal consults Clerk of the Court of Protection (artist’s impression by Luca Signorelli)