Judges are accustomed to being admonished by the lord chancellor for using expressions such as "the nigger in the woodpile".

It might have come as some surprise, however, to be warned yesterday to think twice before uttering the phrase "asylum seeker".
According to new guidance to judges issued yesterday by the lord chief justice, Lord Woolf, "asylum seeker" is now associated with people without a genuine claim to be refugees, and is almost pejorative.