The Garrick Club affair has taken a new and slightly worrying twist, this time courtesy of – of all bodies – the Bar Council. Hot on the heels of calls for judges to resign en masse from the club because it remains single-sex, the Council now apparently wants to go even further. It is hinting that it may forbid any member of the Bar from being a member. Its menacing words bear quoting in full:
For now, it is a matter for individuals to determine whether or not membership of an institution, such as the Garrick Club, is compatible with the views they espouse in their professional lives, but this may change. As a profession it is vitally important that we retain the trust and confidence of the public.
The Bar – which is armed with state power to control entry to a vital profession – is seriously suggesting that it could say what its members are allowed to do with their social lives.
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