The Times is reporting that the Lord Chancellor maintains a list of judges and magistrates who have been disciplined for misuse of their computers. The offences apparently include the viewing of pornography.

I'm amazed that the article doesn't discuss the obvious implication of the existence of this list, which is that the judges and magistrates concerned can no longer be considered to be independent of the government. They are so obviously open to blackmail that they must be considered incapable of performing their jobs.

The Government is currently refusing to release even the numbers of judicial staff or offences involved - someone more cynical than me would point out that this conveniently retains the power of blackmail with the government. But there is no doubt that at the very least, the names and offences will have to be released, or the culprits quietly released from their positions.  While the information is secret, these people are tainted with the suspicion that they can be influenced, and that strikes hard at the independence of the judiciary.