Smithy Code Cracked

The hidden message in the Da Vinci Code ruling has been deciphered. The Guardian have a story on what it was, and how it was decrypted. To save you clicking, if you simply what to know what the Smithy Code said, then I'm happy to spoil it for you.

The message, when simply a string of unpunctuated characters, reads:

JACKIEFISHERWHOAREYOUDREADNOUGHT

Slap in some spacing, a comma and a question mark and adjust the cases sensibly, and you will find:

"Jackie Fisher, who are you? Dreadnought"

This is a reference the judge's interest in Admiral Jackie Fisher. What an anticlimax. Snore.

The riddle was solved by Dan Tench, the lawyer who first spotted it, which in a he-who-smealt-it-dealt-it kind of way leads me to suspicions of conspiracy and hype-mongering.