Sunday, February 07, 2010

Mags' Mag

The latest edition of 'Magistrate' magazine dropped through the front door yesterday. It is, as you would expect, a worthy if rather pedestrian publication, and it sometimes includes useful guides to current legal issues, alongside the usual posed groups of magisterial worthies flanking some big beast from the judicial jungle - this month it's Lord Judge smiling owlishly from a crescent of people involved with a community sentencing initiative.
The cover trails a piece about women magistrates who have now been with us for 90 years, and who currently comprise just over half the Bench. They used to be called lady magistrates, but HMCS issued an edict a couple of years ago that the 'lady' had to go, so women it is, at least for those who care what HMCS thinks.
The ads in the magazine suggest that the agency selling the space sees the demographic of the magistracy as a well-heeled and middle-aged lot; a quick glance shows a charity, the Civil Service Insurance Society, a law school, an upmarket travel agency, a supplier of posh stationery, another of commemorative crystal, and an offer of a parchment scroll to commemorate your appointment or retirement as a JP (£26 and £38 respectively). The small ads are mostly for holiday properties offered to let by their JP owners.
The oddest thing in this month's volume is what is described as a blog. It has a handful of unexceptionable comments, but just one thing, chaps - 'blog' is an abbreviation of 'weblog', and Google has never heard of this one, at least as far as I could find. If it ain't on the web, it ain't a blog, I'm afraid. It's an article in a magazine. And I would like to know how the author managed to post at least three of the pieces well after the printers' deadline had passed.

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