The first, and most important, thing to remind everyone before I dissect the events of the last few weeks is that there is still no stain on the character of former Chief Legal Ombudsman Adam Sampson. There has never been any suggestion of fraud or wrongdoing around the expenses issue which led him to resign, and the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Richard Heaton, acknowledged before the justice select committee last month that, in the private sector, the arrangements would have passed muster.

Halloween 2015 will mark the beginning of the end of the hours-based CPD year. From 1 November 2016 it will be mandatory to move to the SRA’s new CPD model, whereby individuals make a declaration of competence to practise when applying for their practising certificate. Employers will share responsibility for ensuring people are, indeed, competent.

The public and the Bar can rest assured in the knowledge that it has a regulator looking after the public’s best interests, going by the high impact supervision returns report the Bar Standards Board published last week. We have been looking systematically, carefully, expertly, independently and fearlessly at what the Bar does. We are pleased to assure the public that the vast majority of barristers are doing a great job.

Today is a special day for all Back to the Future fans, and for those who don’t know or haven’t seen a newspaper today, 21 October 2015 is the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future. It’s worth looking at the film’s predictions and identifying what was made a reality, and what we have lived through or grown up with in terms of technological change.

A few months ago Google added car insurance to its ‘Google Compare’ suite of products, products which Google says are designed to help people make confident and more informed financial decisions. Did those in the insurance industry see this coming? Probably. Can they do much about it? Probably not. Are they worried by it? I should say so. So I pose this question. What if Google decided to launch a full range consumer legal services business in the UK tomorrow?