Sheep are, according to John Campbell QC, president of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, ‘a good example for the modern mediator, since they think for themselves as well as their flock’. Introducing former lord chief justice Lord Woolf at the institute’s annual mediation symposium, the president, who grew up on a sheep farm, told delegates that, contrary to popular belief, the ovine creatures are in fact highly individual with diverse personalities and a keen curiosity. He told Woolf: ‘I have had some difficulty in preparing for today in seeing how a mediator might reconcile the idea of a sheep-lover sitting alongside a wolf.’ He went on: ‘The fact that we can do so strikes me as highly symbolic for today’s meeting.’

But Campbell need not have worried. His words prompted Woolf’s own recollection of an amusing sheep-related incident. He once went abroad to a country where the Foreign Office advised him that he should not travel under his own name for security reasons. Lord Woolf was given travel documents and a passport under a false name. When he got to the airport and opened the documents, the civil servant had changed his name to Mr Sheep. A Woolf in sheep’s clothing, of course.