I write regarding last week’s news item ‘Aspiring judges quizzed on race’ (see [2009] Gazette, 17 September, 1).

This article raises hopes that the legal profession will eventually become free from discrimination.

In my experience, people don’t willingly comply with suggestions to change, especially in the law. The attitude still exists among many lawyers that this is a profession reserved only for the white, British-born middle classes.

In South Africa, the policy of affirmative action was successful in forcing through change.

Stronger approaches such as mentioned in your article are the only way forward to ensure that real equality is achieved. It is only fair that ‘one white male should be quizzed about why he lived in an area with so few people from ethnic minority groups’. Why not? In fact, that may not be enough. My view has always been that if one needs to pass judgement on people who live in an area with a certain cultural identity, one should be able to fully understand that area. Such initiatives are long overdue.

Edward Roos, Epsom