The gentlemen of the Garrick doubtless rang for another large malt when the Guardian gleefully revealed the identities of current members.

The profession had its own, very prominent, place in the roll-call, with a procession of senior judges and other assorted legal panjandrums on the books of the men-only club. The judges included a Supreme Court justice, five from the Court of Appeal and eight from the High Court.

Publication of the list has reignited the debate about whether serving members of the judiciary should belong to a men-only club, which critics condemn as a bastion of male elitism.

All very awkward, m’lud, in this age of Woke.

Former Supreme Court president Baroness Hale is among those to have called out the Garrick’s judicial coterie in the past. So it was no surprise to see the Judicial Office dead-bat questions with the response: ‘The judiciary does not comment on the personal affairs of individual judges.’

A penny for the thoughts of lady chief justice Carr, who smashed the glass ceiling last year when she became the first female head of the judiciary of England and Wales. Obiter has no idea if Carr pines to join assorted junior colleagues at the long, public-school-style luncheon tables of the venerable London institution. We rather hope not. Next time the LCJ gives a press conference, she’ll certainly be asked.

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