I had never had any particular desire to be a high court judge until Mr Justice Lightman, giving judgment on radio and television presenter Chris Evans' case against Virgin, called him a petulant, manipulative, lying prima donna. I have to say that an opportunity like that can make a whole life worthwhile. It is similar to the time at school when I punched Andrew Jenkins on the nose (shortly before being beaten to a pulp myself). Life affirming. But even with these potent attractions I don't think I would be quite comfortable being a judge (a somewhat hypothetical event). The difficulty is the necessary arbitrariness of having to impose order on a disordered world—to create categories when there are only gradations. It is like being faced interminably with those multiple choice questions in exams where you want to say "sometimes," but the only available answers are "yes" or "no."

I suspect that judges, like doctors, fall into two camps. Some make up their mind about a judgment (or a case) and build an argument showing the inevitability of their decision. The more honest delineate the grey areas and explain why they have, of necessity, made the best guess they can.

I started doing a law degree a couple of years ago with an open mind and a conviction that judges were right wing, bigoted old buffers. But, as always, the strength of my certainty seems inversely proportional to my knowledge of a subject. Many of the judgments I have to read dent my prejudices. Somewhat surprisingly, they usually seem to come from rather fair minded and clear thinking people.

It is certainly true that judges are not exactly representative of the world at large. They originate almost exclusively from a small cadre of public schools and Oxbridge. But I suppose Plato wouldn't have objected. And if the Daily Mail is as representative as its circulation suggests then maybe it is more important that judges are disinterested rather than representative.

In the end, though, the attraction of being a judge is not merely the possibility of being analytically rude. As doctors we spend our lives trying to keep everyone happy. We endlessly try to square the circle. It must be a kind of relief to know that, as a judge, whatever decision you make, you're going to piss off 50% of people. There's a certain elegant symmetry about that.