Baroness Hale has evidently been enjoying life since retiring as President of the Supreme Court in January last year. Hale, once dubbed the ‘Beyoncé of the legal profession,’ became the toast of Remainers everywhere after her withering slap-down to Boris Johnson’s prorogation bid in 2019.
Now ensconced on the lecture circuit, the former academic has spent the past eighteen months being showered with those baubles beloved of the establishment: academic honours galore, an Oxford fellowship, a gushing interview in the New Statesman, the obligatory slot on Desert Island Discs and, of course, a book deal with a leading London publisher.
Hale’s memoirs – Spider Woman – is a nod to the brooch she wore when delivering the prorogation verdict and the subsequent explosion in tribute merchandise that followed. Glutinous praise met the publication of her book, which was prominently on display at this month’s Labour conference but – curiously enough – not the Tory one.
As part of her efforts to flog the work, Hale has been on something of a book tour this month, popping up at various events across the UK. This included a jaunt to Jersey last week, where among other stops Hale popped in to the island’s legislative drafting office to discuss whether gender-neutral drafting should lead to the use of the singular term ‘they.’
But the highlight of her visit was undoubtedly her star turn at the Jersey Gilbert and Sullivan Society’s 40th anniversary celebrations billed, modestly, as ‘All Hale, Great Judge!’ in which the septuagenarian peer regaled attendees with extracts from the Victorian duo’s work.
Steerpike’s man in the audience reports that Hale ‘revelled’ in the night, joining the amateur players up on stage garbed in her (much-disliked) wig and legal finery, as one would expect from the self-confessed ‘bit of an actress.’ Mr S is delighted to report that the legal eagle received a rapturous reception in her new-found vocation – unsurprising perhaps when one considers the burdens of the law. As Gilbert and Sullivan themselves wrote:
Come, friends, lawyers like me, Stop representation; Find your true vocation; We’ll live good lives when we Quit the lawsuit industree!
With panto season just around the corner, is this just the first of many performances we can expect from the right honourable Baroness?
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