LORD Phillips of Worth Matravers is worried that public confidence in the legal system is being undermined.

The Lord Chief Justice says the controversial early release system for prisoners is an undesirable reaction by the government to jail overcrowding.

Another area concerning him is that courts are relying too heavily on fixed penalties to deal with antisocial behaviour. These opinions should endear him to an increasingly frustrated public, as will his desire for a clearer and simpler sentencing structure. It might go some way to convincing people that justice is actually being delivered. Lord Phillips, who will be the first president of the new Supreme Court next year, did not mention as far as I am aware, the issue of a small minority of judges appearing to be completely detached from reality, in their comments and their sentencing. That, along with numerous miscarriages of justice over the years, has probably done more than anything to knock faith in M'Learned Friends and their work.

l I have always had a soft spot for Africa, Kenya in particular, since travelling round the country as 16-year-old schoolboy with a mate. Those were the days. So I am delighted to see that a government "peace" deal has been agreed in the wake of the horrifying post-election violence in January. It now remains for the other little local difficulty to be cleared up in Zimbabwe. The international community so far has been measured in its response to the poll fiasco there. But I hope someone has already made the flight arrangements from Harare to the Hague with a ticket made out in the name of Robert Mugabe.