There is something disconcerting when someone resigns and admits they were not up to the job. This week, Lady Butler-Sloss, a talented woman gauged by a 35-year career that led her to become Britain's top female judge, did just that as she became the third Royal coroner to resign from the inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. She said she lacked "the degree of experience of jury cases that I feel is necessary and appropriate for presiding over inquests of this level of public interest".

In many ways such candour was admirable, showing signs of an enviable self-awareness, rather than a bogus explanation of spending "more time with her family" (the standard US line used, for example, by Claude Allen, the president's domestic policy adviser, just days before he was charged with department store theft).