whether what was done was part of the joint enterprise, or went beyond it and was in fact an act unauthorised by that joint enterprise." He is also famous for his quote: "Loss of freedom seldom happens overnight. Oppression doesn't stand on the doorstep with toothbrush moustache and swastika armband – it creeps up insidiously... step by step, and all of a sudden the unfortunate citizen realizes that it is gone." Judicial office High Court Later in 1966, Lane was appointed a Justice of the High Court, assigned to the Queen's Bench Division, receiving the customary Knighthood. He was elected a Bencher at Gray's Inn the same year. He delivered some notable judgments: in 1968, he awarded damages against a school for a pupil who had been injured in 'horseplay' between his peers, saying that the school had a responsibility to stop it getting out of hand; and while acting as an appeal judge, he found for the publishers of Last Exit to Brooklyn who had been convicted of publishing an obscene book, because of faults in the trial Judge's summing-up. He was chosen to head the inquiry into the Staines air disaster in 1972, and concluded that the underlying cause was an undiagnosed heart condition of the pilot which impaired his judgement, coupled with the pilot's known bad temper which led to his junior crew being unwilling to challenge him. Appellate courts Lane was made a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1974. He was one of the appeal judges in Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council's appeal to keep its Grammar Schools rather than be forced by the government to adopt a comprehensive system, and joined in the judgment that found for Tameside and brought a halt to comprehensivisation. Lane's judgment was personally critical of Fred Mulley, the Secretary of State for Education and Science for being "far from frank" about his reason for intervening in Tameside. In another high-profile case in 1977, Lane joined in dismissing an appeal against deportation from Mark Hosenball, an American journalist working for the Evening Standard. In 1978, Lane found for the Labour Party and against its dissident members (Paul McCormick and Julian Lewis) who tried to win control of Newham North East Constituency Labour Party from the party's National Executive. Lane became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary on 28 September 1979, receiving as a Law lord additionally a life peerage as Baron Lane,