Scots law does not accord to precedent the authority formerly owed to it by the courts of South Britain. So if the public presentation of the judiciary to the world through a frame of plastic horrors is unprecedented, that may matter little. In November last year, the public window of the library was displaying a teddy bear dressed as a senator of the College of Justice, for reasons that were unexplained [Ed—I am partial to the bear]. It is of academic interest only to wonder what Lord President Emslie or Lord President Hope would have thought. To be fair, a lord president and lord justice-clerk once played peevers in Parliament Square, but only in the imaginative verses of John Oliver.

The question of principle seems more real. If the public appearance of a judicial institution such as a library is to be dressed with seasonal, juvenile or comic ornamentations, then perhaps we can look forward to the practice spreading. After all, there are lots of possibilities; the arcades of Parliament House - Parliament Hall itself - court-room corridors in every sheriffdom - spartan witness rooms - and, of course, the court-rooms themselves. There surely cannot be a shrieval auditorium in the country which would not be brightened up by some plastic pumpkins.

As with all progress, there will be stick-in-the-muds and nay-sayers. We are all too used to dour, humourless exaggerations, about how the practical business of our country is drowning in an ever-rising tide of triviality. Overblown claims are made about the communal importance of our institutions and their officers displaying attitudes of seriousness and self-respect. But those of us who rightly see life as essentially entertainment are not impressed by the doubters. If 21st-century Western society stands accused of seeking to live in an eternal Sunday afternoon, then what could be wrong with that?

So we can surely all take heart that the Supreme Court Library is simply leading the way to a better future in which, as the seasons appoint, our courts will be jollified with Easter bunnies and with Christmas tinsel. Nor need the gaiety end there: come the next World Cup, why not uplifting strings of national flags? The only limits are those of the imagination of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. If it has any.

[Contributed]