I was wrong to predict in August that the newly-appointed Mr Justice Munby would be promoted to the Court of Appeal at the end of his three-year term of office as chairman of the Law Commission.

He was appointed to the Court of Appeal last week. Although such decisions are still taken by the Judicial Appointments Commission, there is a new convention that the chairman of the Law Commission will take the first available vacancy in the Court of Appeal.

And it's not just more money -- it's more clout. Appeal judges are made members of the Privy Council. Apparently, there's also a convention in Whitehall that letters from Privy Counsellors to government departments receive replies from ministers rather than from officials.