he came to public attention in 1985 when wrote an article that was published in "the daily telegraph" criticising the conservative government's policy of widening probation, insisting that imprisonment was necessary to deter offenders. his statements to the press breached the voluntary rules established by lord kilmuir in the 1950s that restricted press statements to senior judges. he publicly criticised the lord chancellor lord hailsham as "a brooding quixotic dictator". hailsham retaliated that pickles was "a sort of anti-judge who does all the things that a judge ought not to do". the kilmuir rules were abolished when lord mackay became lord chancellor in october 1987. there was speculation that pickles would be dismissed in 1989, after he spoke to the press about a case he had heard which was subject to appeal, but instead he was given a "serious rebuke".